However, not always do volcanic eruptions conjure up images of lava, fire, and devastation. The Plinian eruption of Mount Vesuvius about 4,000 years ago, which happened 2,000 years before the eruption that buried the Roman city of Pompeii, left behind a village from the Early Bronze Age that is remarkably well preserved.
Afragola was a small village located about 10 miles from Mount Vesuvius, not far from what is now Naples. The village was covered in meters of ash, mud, and alluvial sediments after the eruption, which provided the site with an unexpected level of protection—unusual for archaeological sites from this era in Europe. Scientists were eager to find out when the eruption happened because of how well the site was kept and how many plants were still alive.
The village of Afragola is one of the best-studied Early Bronze Age sites in Italy. A large team of archaeologists carefully dug up 5,000 square meters of the site and took samples.
Tiziana Matarazzo ’14 (Ph.D.), a researcher in the UConn Department of Anthropology, collaborated with coauthors and archaeologists Monica Stanzione, Giuliana Boenzi, and Elena Laforgia from the Soprintendenza of Archeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the Metropolitan Area of Naples and Polo Museale Campania to publish their most recent findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science:
“The location is unique because it provides a wealth of information about the local environment and the people who lived there before Afragola was completely destroyed by a massive eruption of Vesuvius. In this case, finding fruits and agricultural products allowed us to determine the eruption’s season, which is typically impossible, “Matarazzo” says.
According to Matarazzo, the eruption happened in stages, beginning with a violent explosion that sent most of the debris primarily in the direction of the northeast. As a result, the villagers had time to flee. As a result, the site does not have any human remains like Pompeii does, but it does have numerous adult and child fleeing footprints. After that, the wind’s direction changed and a ton of ash was carried in that direction toward Afragola.
According to Matarazzo, “the last phase brought mostly ash and water,” also known as the phreatomagmatic phase, “and it mainly dispersed to the west and northwest up to a distance of about 25 km from the volcano.” The village was completely buried during this final stage. When the thick layer of volcanic material replaced the molecules of the plant macro-remains, perfect casts were made in a material called cinerite. Because of this, the materials stayed stable even after thousands of years.
We have lovely imprints of the leaves in the cinerite because nearby trees’ leaves were also covered in mud and ash when it wasn’t very hot.
According to the researchers, the village provides a unique window into Early Bronze Age life in Italy.
“At this time, we had huts in Campania, but the Greeks had palaces,” Matarazzo claims. These people most likely resided in communities where one or more individuals served as the group’s leader.
The entire grain supply, as well as other agricultural products and fruits, was stored in one building in the village before being likely distributed to the entire populace.
Fortunately for this study, the plant food warehouse caught fire instead of the other huts in the village, probably as a result of the arrival of pyroclastic materials. Its collapse made it possible for the plant matter it had stored to be carbonized indirectly.
Matarazzo says that the Bronze Age Campanian Plain had a lot of grains, barley, hazelnuts, acorns, wild apples, dogwood, pomegranates, and cornelian cherries. All of these things were remarkably well preserved after the volcanic eruption.
The evidence suggests that the eruption took place during the harvest season, when the villagers were gathering their food supplies from the nearby woods. According to Matarazzo, ripe fruits and leaf imprints found at the base of trees are strong indicators of the season.
Matarazzo claims that the area has changed significantly from how it used to look as a result of development and climate change. We discovered the location because a high-speed train line is being built.
For the time being, the researchers can consult the site-recovered materials that are currently kept off-site in a storage facility. Matarazzo says that the focus of future research will be to look more closely at the footprints and animal bones found on the site. These bones include those of cattle, goats, pigs, and fish.
Because of how unusual this eruption was, the climate was altered for many years afterward. The Plinian eruption’s column nearly reached airplane flight altitude. That was incredible. Since the ash layer covered the area so thoroughly, no one even noticed the site had been abandoned for 4,000 years. We now have the opportunity to discover more about the locals and hear their stories. ”
Without the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l’Area Metropolitana di Napoli and the RFI-Italferr Team Ferrovie dello Stato Italiano, this study would not have been possible.
