In early 1748, Alcubierre hears some promising news. Near the town of Torre Annunziata is an area known as La Civita. Some land belonging to a
Farmer in La Civita has caved in. In the hollow, the farmer finds remains of marble statues and paintings.
Excited by the news, Alcubierre contacts the prime minister in Naples. He asks for permission to move a few workers from Herculaneum to this new site. With a twelve-man crew, Alcubierre begins excavating La Civita. As the digging begins, he is sure he’s found the ancient town of Stabiae. Alcubierre is wrong about Stabiae. But he’s right in thinking he’s found something big. Unknown to Alcubierre, La Civita rests atop the city of Pompeii.
Excavating Pompeii is much simpler than excavating Herculaneum.
Unlike Herculaneum, Pompeii is not covered by hardened mud. Instead, it is buried under the lapilli. These small pieces of lava are fairly loose.
Digging into them is relatively easy. Alcubierre sees that excavation there can go far faster with fewer workers. Also, the workers can get to the treasure by digging open trenches. They don’t need to carve tunnels. This means they can work in daylight in fresh air.
But soon it’s also clear the excavation is going to be expensive.
Digging open trenches will destroy the area’s farms and vineyards. To soothe angry landowners, the king has to pay a good price for the use of the land.
Digging at Pompeii proves very dangerous. Workers can easily fall into the trenches or slip into pits of loosened lapilli. Mofeta, pockets of gas trapped in the volcanic debris, are another threat. The gas released from the mofetas contains large amounts of poisonous carbon dioxide.
If the workers dig into a mofeta and release the gas, breathing it can be deadly. The workers soon learn that when they hit a mofeta, a rotten-egg smell fills the air. The smell is made by the release of the gas hydrogen
Learning to Excavate 25
Sulfide. Just a whiff of this foul odor sends workmen scrambling, fearing for their lives. Only weeks into the project, the site has to be shut down for three months to allow the gas-filled air to clear.
Alcubierre and his men finally get back to work. He is more eager than ever for an exciting find. He decides to dig up Pompeii’s amphitheater.
This is a great open-air arena where contests and spectacles were held. Alcubierre has no trouble finding the site. The outlines of the buried
Amphitheater seating can be seen on the surface. Alcubierre hopes Pompeii’s amphitheater will be a treasure trove just as Herculaneum’s theater was.
To Alcubierre’s frustration, the site yields nothing for two months. He moves his men to the other side of the city. But even there, the new finds are few. After another mofeta scare, Alcubierre has had it. He abandons La Civita altogether in search of more promising sites.
When Alcubierre went back to work at La Civita, he began with the town's large amphitheater (below). Its outline stood out on the modern surface of the town.
The J. Paul Getty Museum (above) in Malibu, California, was built as a replica of the Villa of the Papyri near Herculaneum. Weber found this seafront villa in 1750.
World History
