Week 5: Pompeii (79 AD)

This week we went for a visit back in time to Pompeii, the Ancient Roman city that was buried under 10 feet of ash from Mount Vesuvius! We started our class by hearing an eyewitness account from Pliny the Younger, who wrote these powerful words:

"At last the cloud thinned out and dwindled to no more than smoke or fog. 

Soon there was real daylight. The sight that met our still terrified eyes 

was a changed world, buried in ash like snow."

We talked about how Pompeii gives archaeologists the amazing opportunity to see what everyday life was like in Ancient Rome. The thick layers of ash preserved buildings, coins, food and even the impressions made by people's bodies!

Even though most people think of enormous lava flows when they hear about a volcanic eruption, Mount Vesuvius did not produce a lot of lava. We learned about the type of volcano that Mount Vesuvius is (a stratovolcano) and used a model to reproduce an ash cloud and rock slide, just like the type that buried Pompeii.

See you next week in Mexico as we study the Mayan Empire!