National Geographic: In the Shadow of Vesuvius (1987)

Curious minds want to know... documentary movie collection.

Moderator: Maskath3

Watch Docus Amazon   Docus Merchandise

Documentary movie collection.
Post Reply

National Geographic: In the Shadow of Vesuvius (1987)

Post by bunniefuu »

From deep in the earth come clues to

mystery nearly 2,000 years old.

They d*ed instantly,

victims of a volcano's wrath.

But only now are we beginning

to piece together

the mosaic that tells

of their tragic final hours.

Pulsing with

an electric energy uniquely its own,

southern Italy is also the intimate

companion of destruction and death.

Active for 17,000 years,

Mount Vesuvius erupted most recently

in 1944, devastating two towns.

Only a few miles from Vesuvius another

town lives with yet a different thr*at.

Here, the sea appears to be boiling,

the earth regularly grumbles and groans

and sulfuric gases choke the air.

"Vesuvius slumbers",

one scientist wrote,

"but his heart is still awake".

A microcosm of our eternal battle

with forces we cannot tame,

this is life in the shadow of Vesuvius

Washed by the placid waters

of the Bay of Naples,

the region of Campania

has long attracted poets

and travelers, emperors and kings.

Two thousand years ago

writers described Campania as

"the most blest land",

"the fairest of all regions,

not only in Italy but

in all the world",

"a place where the summers are cool

and winters warm

and where the sea dies away gently

as it kisses the shore".

The climate and extraordinarily rich

soil enabled farmers then, as now,

to grow grapes, olives,

and up to four seed crops a year.

But 2,000 years ago few understood

that the richness of the soil

was a gift from the mountain

in their midst that

the mountain was in fact a volcano.

Today we know Mount Vesuvius

as one of the most famous,

and infamous, volcanoes in history.

The most active volcano on the

mainland of Europe,

it has erupted some 50 times

since the Roman era.

Looming over a metropolis vastly

expanded since Roman times,

Vesuvius, the "flaming mountain",

is no less of a thr*at today.

Today, Vesuvius's shadow falls on

some two million people

in the greater Naples area

one of the most densely populated

urban areas in all of Europe.

Nowhere else in the Western world

do such vast numbers dwell in the

immediate vicinity of an active volcano.

Though most Neapolitans either don't

know or refuse to believe

that Vesuvius is an active volcano,

local scientists are on 24-hour alert.

Seismic information from throughout

the region is continually monitored.

With no practical civil defense plan

possible caught unaware,

the goal is to accumulate enough data

to be able to develop

an early warning system.

The science of plate tectonics

tells us that the earth's outer shell

is composed of about a dozen rigid

plated that are in continuing motion.

The movements cause the plates

to clash in several ways.

One is called subduction, in which one

plate grinds beneath another.

As this happens,

the heat of the earth's interior

creates magma hot liquid rock.

In this way about 80% of the world's

volcanoes are formed.

Along the coast of Italy subduction has

created an entire string of volcanoes.

The most famous in Italy, and perhaps

the world, is Mount Vesuvius.

Here, the power of nature's forces

has been felt, at Pozzuoli,

Naples itself,

San Sebastiano,

and two towns made famous

when Vesuvius buried them in 79 A.D.

Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Lost and forgotten for

more than 1,600 years,

Pompeii is one of the great

archeological sites of the world,

as much for its poignant story

as for its historical significance.

Lying six miles from

the foot of Vesuvius,

Pompeii was a thriving Roman

commercial center of some 15000 people,

specializing in the export of wine,

fish sauce, and woolen cloth.

Its boundless prosperity was reflected

in the name of its main road:

Street of Abundance.

Kept safe from the ravages of time by

the very volcanic debris that buried it.

Pompeii is the largest site of the

ancient world so completely preserved.

In addition to homes and shops.

Pompeii had its own marketplaces,

baths, and theaters.

More than a hundred taverns

and inns catered to merchants

and traders arriving by land and sea

from the farthest reaches

of the Roman Empire.

Bakers were among the busiest tradesmen

Grain was ground into flour

in stone mills

turned by animals or slaves.

In the oldest known Roman amphitheater

built 100 years before

the Colosseum in Rome,

sporting events, gladiator contests,

and battles with wild animals.

Soon after excavation was begun.

Pompeii's name swept the Western world

and its art and architecture had

a profound effect

on European and American culture.

A "Pompeii fever" compelled painters

and sculptors throughout Europe

to make pilgrimages here.

Neoclassicism was fueled

as a major art from

and remained the standard

for the 18th and 19th centuries.

Pompeiians depicted the wine god

Bacchus clothed in grapes,

as was the fertile Vesuvius itself.

With no record of eruption

in living memory,

they saw it as merely a mountain,

beautiful and benign.

On that fateful August day in 79 A.D.

thousands fled the city

at the mountain's outburst.

For those who tarried, the end was

sudden and violent

a painful, choking death from

asphyxiation by gases and ash.

Their bodies were packed

in the dry ash,

which hardened over the years

into hollow outlines of the dead.

When the forms were discovered

in the 1860s,

plaster was injected into them,

Creating these faithful images of the

victims at their very moment of death.

Eight miles northwest of Pompeii

is the modern-day town of Ercolano.

It is built atop a buried ancient town

Herculaneum,

which was silenced in the same

eruption as Pompeii.

The earliest part of Herculaneum

to be discovered

still remains hidden underground

because occupied homes and

stores lie above it.

All traces of Herculaneum

had been lost until 1709.

Even writings about the once elegant

town had disappeared or been destroyed

The rebirth of Herculaneum

began with its accidental discovery

by a well digger.

Searching for water, he struck instead

what turned out to be a Roman theater.

Later, excavators knew they

had found ancient Herculaneum

when they uncovered marble inscribed

with its name in Latin.

In one of the dark tunnels a haunting

image from the past

an impression left in

the volcanic debris

by a statue toppled from its pedestal.

Magnificent treasures were uncovered,

and when word of them spread,

the ruling nobility of Naples

recklessly looted the theater.

Tunnels were ordered dug and searched.

And a massive hole was cut to

haul out the exquisite marble

and priceless bronze statues.

Then, except for sporadic digging,

Herculaneum was all

but forgotten once again.

More than 100 years later

excavating begins in earnest

when the Fascist government allocates

large sums to preserve Roman antiquities.

Ton after ton of volcanic debris

is hauled away.

Only then does the ancient town

begin to emerge.

Pompeii had been relatively

easy to excavate;

yet here at Herculaneum

workers struggle through 40 to 60 feet

of material as hard as cement.

Why this difference? Scientists puzzle

Why was Pompeii covered

by gravel and ash

and Herculaneum

by a rock-solid deposit

when the two towns were buried

in the same eruption?

Unlike the commercial center

of Pompeii,

Herculaneum was a residential

and resort town.

Built on a low bluff

overlooking the sea,

it housed between four and

five thousand wealthy retired citizens

artisans, and fishermen.

The most notable gathering places

in Herculaneum were the bath houses.

Heated by fires and tended by slaves,

the baths drew residents almost daily.

With separate sections

for women and men,

the baths were a place to relax,

socialize, and conduct business.

Now, bases on record from the past,

with the help of an artist's hand,

Herculaneum is magically recaptured

as it was in the glorious days

of the Roman Empire.

They left us image magnificently cast

in bronze,

but where were the people themselves?

Few human remains had ever been found,

and scholars concluded that surely

the people of Herculaneum

had successfully escaped.

The extraordinary number

of everyday objects

provides an intimate look

at Roman life.

A cloth press in a cleaner's shop.

The remains of a bed.

A baby's charred cradle.

A charred doll.

Magnificent jewelry,

hand-hammered from the purest of gold.

And costume jewelry of beads,

stones, and amber.

and perhaps most astounding

of all food set on the table:

walnuts, freshly baked bread, eggs,

and figs preserved for

nearly 2,000 years.

In 1980, more than 270 years after

the initial discovery of Herculaneum,

a skeleton was uncovered on the site

of the ancient beach front.

Then three more were found there,

igniting the archeological community.

The arched chambers facing

the beach had never been excavated.

Now they cried out for attention.

Yet no one was prepared

for the landmark discovery

that would destroy scientific theory

on Herculaneum's final hours.

Many Herculaneans had not escaped.

Huddled together in the dark recesses

of the chambers,

scores were overtaken

by Vesuvius's indiscriminate rampage.

Perhaps members of the same family,

one group d*ed locked in embrace.

Some of the victims were found wearing

valuables gold and shining gems.

Others, no doubt certain

they would escape,

gathered their treasure troves

and carried them as they fled.

Today, the cataclysm that brought

instant death

has become an unparalleled legacy

for modern scientists.

Analysis of the bone may answer some

of history's riddles

about Roman culture and daily life.

Physical anthropologist Dr. Sara Bisel

has spent her career

analyzing human bones,

but this opportunity is unique.

The reason why the Herculaneum

population is so important

is that it may well be the only one

we ever have from

the Roman period in Italy

because Roman burials were

cremations and so aren't studiable.

And we've had artifacts before,

we've had architectural remains,

we've had literature, but this is

the first time we've had real people.

I find it very moving.

Working with chief excavator

Ciro Formicola,

Bisel uncovers treasures locked

in the earth for nearly 2,000 years.

A magnificent bracelet is found

alongside a woman's remains.

No doubt a person of wealth,

she was found with much gold jewelry.

I think she must have had them

in her purse

since her arm is off

in another direction.

Oh, this one has a little chain.

Her earrings, meant for pierced ears,

were probably decorated with pearls.

And as she ran,

she carried a bronze oil lamp

futile protection against the dark.

I take them out of the ground

because they talk to me then.

They don't talk to me as much in

the ground as they do to other people.

But when I get them out, then they

tell me what they did all their lives

and what they did every day.

And they say whether they are male

or female, their ages,

what kind of work they did,

whether they were abused

when they were alive,

what sort of nutrition they had,

if they were sick.

Well, I can't see all the illnesses,

but some of them.

They can tell me that.

Women can tell me how many

babies they had.

They can't tell me whether

they were happy or not.

This is noteworthy.

From a pelvic bone Bisel is able to

tell the woman's approximate age

and how many babies she had.

Twenty-seven years;

two or three children.

She was roughly 27 years old

and had two or three babies.

From that little bone,

all that news.

In all, Bisel will analyze

some 25,000 bones.

It is a monumental task.

After the bones are cleaned, dried,

and dipped in an acrylic-resin

solution to harden them,

Bisel begins the process of

sorting and reconstruction.

In general I think they

are pretty healthy.

I haven't seen some of the gross

diseases that I might see.

Some of the people who, I presume,

were slaves show signs of working very

very hard and they're of course

not nearly so healthy

as some of the other people.

Ancient people have beautiful teeth,

even at ages of 35, 40, 45.

They have very few cavities

and very few abscesses

and all the teeth just line up

like piano keys.

With her trained eye, Bisel is able

to unravel a tantalizing mystery

about two people found lying together

in one of the chambers.

This baby was in the first chamber

that we excavated in the back part.

And actually before we

started taking people out,

all you could see was the top of

the little head,

and it was being held in the arms

of a young girl.

So we didn't know we knew it was a baby

but we didn't know too much about it.

The men that were working

with me all said,

This is the baby and its mother

and everything.

And I looked at the skeleton

of the girl holding it

and it was a prepubertal girl.

So I know it wasn't the mother.

So then they all said it

must be the sister,

but I'll show you that

I really don't think it was.

This baby was the baby of a rich family

because it had jewelry on it.

And I don't really think a child that's

from a poor family would have jewelry.

Now here's the girl

that was holding her.

And I'll show you why I don't think

she was the sister.

Sort of a nice-looking person,

isn't she?

Nice regular features.

But if you look really closely here

at these teeth,

you can see the line,

a really deep line,

and the same here on the first molar.

Now this deep indentation into

the enamel shows that

when the tooth was forming, she just

simply wasn't getting anything to eat.

That in itself does not point to

a girl of a rich family.

This is even more telling the humerus.

You see these places here the

attachment for the muscles here

on the humerus that's the arm bone

the attachment for the muscle here

shows severe pulling of that muscle,

which would really only happen in

someone who was lifting things

that were far too heavy

for her to lift.

And no daughter of a rich family would

have to work like that.

So I think she was a sl*ve.

So you see that there really was a cross

section of people found on that beach.

It wasn't just poor people;

there were rich people.

You remember the lady with

the gold bracelets.

So everybody was down there

that didn't escape.

And they were all there together,

and they all d*ed together.

But the central mystery remains:

why had they fled to the beach?

By studying various levels

of volcanic debris,

Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson

of the University of Rhode Island

pieces together Herculaneum's

final hours.

The eruption of Vesuvius occurred

in two phases.

The first phase lasted for about

and resulted in ash fall over

a wide area.

During that phase the wind was blowing

from the north however,

so that Herculaneum was spared most of

the ash and here only about...

...two inches of ash fell during

the first 18 hours of activity.

Therefore, the population of

Herculaneum was relatively unaware

of the potential dangers for the city.

And so, many Herculaneans stayed.

But their good fortune did not last.

Sigurdsson finds evidence of a violent

change of events

that did not occur until many hours

after the ash fall began.

These layers contain important lines

of evidence.

First of all, carbonized wood,

or charcoal,

indicating temperatures of two to

three hundred degrees Centigrade,

as well as bricks and

all their building materials,

which indicate high force,

perhaps of the order of one to

two hundred kilometers per hour.

These layers, therefore,

in our interpretation represent surges

Now surges are the most deadly phases

of volcanic eruptions.

One phase of the Mount St. Helens'

eruption in 1980 was a surge.

Unlike slowly advancing lava flows,

Surges explode with the force

and fury of a nuclear b*mb blast.

Compared to Mount St. Helens,

the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

was ten times more powerful.

For 12 hours Vesuvius hurled into

the sky a column of pumice and ash,

at times as high as 20 miles.

When the column collapsed,

it created a surge

superheated avalanche that blasted

through Herculaneum,

k*lling its residents.

Immediately after the surge

a slower-moving river of debris,

called a pyroclastic flow,

entombed and preserved them.

Of the five surges that followed,

three reached Pompeii,

but by now most people

there had already fled.

Herculaneans were not as fortunate.

In the ruins of one of Herculaneum's

bath houses

the enormity of

the mountain's fury is clear.

This heavy marble bowl was sitting

here by the window before the eruption

But when the surge blasted through

the window, it picked up the bowl

and the force of the surge threw it

across the room

where it left this impression

in the volcanic deposit.

If you look closely, you'll see

the impressions which were left

by window glass thrown into the bowl

when the surge blasted

through the window.

As midnight approached,

none could comprehend that their world

would be snuffed out

in one horrifying blow.

With the surge bearing down on their

town at more than 60 miles an hour,

the Herculaneans had less than

five minutes to flee to the beach,

no doubt hoping to escape by sea.

When escape became impossible,

they ran into the chambers.

Scorched by the searing heat

of the surge,

they suffocated as the gases tore

at their lungs.

Pyroclastic flows that followed

sealed them where they lay

frozen for nearly two millennia

in the tortured postures

of their final moments on this earth.

To date excavations along the ancient

beach front have exposed ten chambers.

But Herculaneum is less

than half excavated.

It seems certain other chambers,

with other dead, remain hidden

in the volcanic debris.

Because parts of Herculaneum lie

buried below the homes

and shops of Ercolano,

they may never see the light of day,

never reveal their ancient secrets

to the modern world.

seven miles west of Naples is Pozzuoli

the largest town in a region known

as the Fiery Fields.

The entire region is a caldera

formed about 35,000 years ago

by a massive eruption.

The Fiery Fields are dotted with some

two dozen vents of smaller volcanoes.

The only one still active is on

the outskirts of Pozzouli itself.

It is called La Solfatara

sulfur earth

Unable to explain the constant steam

and bubbling mud,

the ancients thought surely this

was an entrance to the underworld.

In more recent times Solfatara was

reputedly a source

of inspiration for Dante's "Inferno".

Throughout its history Solfatara

has drawn the attention

of layman and scientist alike.

In the beginning it was pressure

and steam

and we cannot enter the area

because it is dangerous

because there is a corrosion

by the steam of the crater.

So there is the possibility

of collapse of the ground.

Today, scientists stand behind

a wire fence,

protected against ground collapse.

Seventy years ago they were able

to work in this observatory

right on the crater's floor.

Just beyond the trees at the edge

of the crater one is not prepared

for the unlikely sight of campers.

Here, for a few thousand line,

a few American dollars,

tourists from many countries

come to vacation.

This unusual piece of real estate

has been owned by the De Luca family

for more than 100 years.

Eugenio de Luca.

Not so many people used to come here

to see the volcano

because they were afraid.

Now they come again.

But we, me personally,

we have never been afraid.

I was sure, we were sure

that nothing would happen.

I mean nothing volcanic, you know.

Tourists continue to come with

fascination and awe,

and no doubt a bit of daring.

But just beyond the ridge, thousands

of people harbor only deep concern.

The uneasy of Pozzuoli live and work

with Solfatara as a permanent neighbor

Pozzuoli is a working-class

fishing town.

Two thousand years ago,

like Herculaneum and Ischia,

it was a favorite holiday resort

of Italian aristocracy.

In its heyday it was also one of the

principal trading centers

of the Roman Empire.

Now as then, hawkers pitch their wares

They go about their business,

but buyers and sellers alike are

keenly aware

of another potential danger

this one under their feet.

Throughout recorded history Pozzuoli

has been plagued

by earthquakes triggered

by the rise and fall

of magma lying beneath the town.

As the magma has risen and fallen,

so has the town.

As the ancient Roman marketplace

the columns of the Temple of Serapis

were above water level when the market

was built 2,000 years ago.

Now they are marked with the burrows

of marine mollusks,

evidence that over the centuries

Serapis has been periodically submerged

As recently as 1976

it was largely flooded.

One period of startling uplift

occurred in the early 1970s

when the ground rose five-and-half feet

in only three years.

Boats that once anchored

alongside their docks

must now be reached by ladder.

Were Pozzuoli not situated near water,

the uplift would be more difficult

to see.

In fact, it was fishermen

who first noticed it,

as well as the bubbles boiling up

from steam vents on the sea floor.

If too much pressure builds,

the thr*at is an expl*si*n like the

one that formed this mountain in 1538.

Preceded by a series of earthquakes,

the eruption raised the earth

more than 400 feet in just three days.

On October 4, 1983, after months

of daily tremors,

a four-point earthquake

wracked Pozzuoli.

The older buildings fared the worst.

Already weakened by a period of

renewed volcanic uplift,

many, like this church,

all but crumbled into ruin.

No one can say how many houses

were damaged,

but at least half the population

moved out

some in fear,

others at government order.

With their economy collapsed

and schools closed,

an estimated 35,000 people were

relocated to hotels

and temporary camps hastily set up

by the government.

A population already severely stressed

by a year of continuous tremors

was now uprooted from the only home

most had ever known.

In 1985 the volcanic uplift

mysteriously stopped

and people began to return to Pozzuoli

Some businesses, their buildings

destroyed or deemed unsafe,

set up temporary shops

in the town's main park.

Scientists can neither explain

the calm nor guarantee future safety.

Many residents still live elsewhere,

returning to the town only by day.

For fishermen, the best catch

is just after dawn.

So Raffaele Bucciero,

and many others like him,

must sleep in Pozzuoli

or lose their livelihoods.

Working with his son Vincenzo

every day but Sunday,

he hauls in their mile-long net.

The bountiful water are famous for

their shellfish, octopus, and squid.

Vincenzo has a full-time factory job

during the day

and has no desire to become a fisherman

But he knows his father needs help

with the physically demanding work.

Vincenzo has his own family now, but

his ties to his parents remain strong.

Raffaele's wife works perhaps hardest

of all to keep family ties intact,

traveling daily to Pozzuoli

by bus from where she now lives.

Annunziata Bucciero is too frightened

to stay in the damaged apartment

the family once shared.

Major efforts are underway to

reinforce damages buildings

by injecting new cement into them.

But for many people,

the chaos and devastation keeps

their fear of the quake palpably real.

Pozzuoli may be Mrs. Bucciero's

birthplace and home,

but surrounded by the rubble,

she is simply too terrified

to spend even one night.

To retain some semblance

of the family's former life,

Mrs. Bucciero has made a ritual

of the midday meal.

For two long years,

since their apartment was judged unsafe,

the routine has seldom varied.

They are fortunate to have inherited

from her mother

a small ground-level storage room

where the family can gather.

Making do with a portable gas stove,

she takes immense pride in being

able to provide for her family

as she has for more than 35 years.

"I was happy," she says.

"All I cared about was having

my family around me.

But the earthquake divided us."

In a few years retirement is the goal

of Raffaele Bucciero, now 61.

Until that time his life remains tied

to the rhythm of the sea.

He says: We have this cross to bear,

my wife and I.

Our children are scattered all over.

We can't all be together,

so we fixed up this little room.

My wife and I sacrifice. I fish

and she comes and cooks and cleans.

At one o'clock the family is united,

the number of people varying

from day to day.

With their parents today are

one daughter and one son

and their respective fiancs.

It is a time to talk and laugh,

to eat and drink,

and to reenter each other's world

A time to pretend their family

has not been torn apart

and that in one short hour

they won't again be forced

to go their separate ways.

Before nightfall descends on Pozzuoli,

jitneys crowd the marketplace

to transport home

those like Mrs. Bucciero

who live a distance away.

My family is everything to me,

she says.

Alone late at night, I sometimes cry.

After dark Pozzuoli becomes

a veritable ghost town.

His net set out for the night,

Raffaele eats the evening meal

his wife has left behind.

It's very hard, he says.

At my age where would I go?

Pozzuoli has always been our home.

Home or not, many residents have been

forced by authorities to leave.

About four miles northwest of Pozzuoli

in a presumably safe zone,

the government is building a new town

for 20,000 people.

Acclaiming it the "new Pozzuoli",

officials hope it will develop

a vital social and economic life.

But many residents are doubtful.

Isolated from friends and loved ones,

they stay only because

there's nowhere else to go.

Perhaps none are more deeply affected

by Pozzuoli's problems

than some elderly who are separated

from their families and their town.

"During the quake", she says,

the walls were going like this,

and I called out to Jesus.

the ceiling was shaking and the smell

of cracking plaster was everywhere.

It is a trauma for me when I think of

when I used to live in Pozzuoli,

and it hurts to see it so deserted

and convulsed.

I miss everything in Pozzuoli,

everything. It is my home.

Generations have been shaken by fear.

A new generation waits and wonders

when the quakes will strike again.

Until now the Fiery Fields' volcanic

uplife has only been monitored on land

But the Gulf of Pozzuoli is also part

of the ancient caldera.

Prof. Lorenzo Mirabile believes a

true picture of the phenomenon

will only emerge by including a study

of the sea floor.

His team of scientists from

Naples' Institute of Oceanography

will place instruments at four

locations on the bottom of the gulf.

Surface buoys will mark their location

The instruments will indicate

any uplift of the sea floor

by measuring the changes in the height

of the water

between the bottom and the surface.

They will also monitor water

temperature and seismic activity,

taking into account such variables

as currents, tides, and storms.

Solar-powered radio transmitters relay

the data to a centralized computer.

The signals from the gulf are received

at five-minute intervals,

But Mirabile believes it will take at

least a year to accumulate enough data

to even determine what

is critical uplift and what is not.

Then, he hopes, the information,

in combination with the findings

of geologists and volcanologists,

can be used to develop an early

warning system to alert Pozzuoli

before disaster strikes.

The Fiery Fields are home to 200,000

people; grater Naples, to two million.

The evacuation of such numbers poses

astronomical problems.

Yet, without doubt,

Vesuvius is still active;

it will erupt again.

The most recent eruption, in 1944,

was filmed by the Allied troops that

had recently liberated w*r-torn Naples

Relentlessly for three days the lava

rolled over farmlands and vineyards,

moving ever close to the town

of San Sebastiano.

Lying just three miles below

Vesuvius's central crater,

San Sebastiano has historically

been an easy target.

Nearly every generation living here

since the early 19th century

has seen their town destroyed.

Even their patron saint seemed

helpless against the onslaught.

Miraculously, only two people d*ed,

but two thirds of the buildings

were totally destroyed.

Most of the population was homeless.

Two hundred yards wide, the solidified

lava flow remains today

as a vivid reminder of

San Sebastiano's perilous hours.

One man remember well.

Nineteen at the time of the eruption,

Raffaele Capasso would go on to

become mayor of San Sebastiano,

a position he has held for 31 years.

For his the-year-old niece he recalls

the events of 1944

as the lave advanced and

inundated the town.

Could it erupt again? She asks.

Yes, he replies. The volcano has been

sleeping now for 42 years.

We've never seen it

sleep that long before.

But, he goes on, we must rely

on scientists to alert us in time.

Under Mayor Capasso's leadership,

San Sebastiano today is a thriving,

bustling town.

As a young man, it was he who urged

the townspeople

not to abandon their city,

but to rebuild.

And rebuild they did right on

top of the lava.

What might be an ominous reminder

of past horrors

stands as unofficial monument

to a people's tenacity and pride.

Mayor Capasso, often quoted as saying,

"The power of man in greater

than the power of the volcano",

has turned San Sebastiano

into a showcase city.

Before the eruption some

Today, that figure

has more than doubled.

And San Sebastiano is

but one of 14 towns

that crowd the slopes of Vesuvius.

Twice every year, those living

in Vesuvius's shadow throng

to Naples' cathedral, the Duomo,

in anticipation of an ages-old ritual

the miracle of San Gennaro,

their patron saint.

San Gennaro, martired in 305 A.D.,

is said to have saved the region

from famines, plagues, and cholera.

But perhaps most importantly,

he is its protector against

the might of Vesuvius.

A small amount of his dried blood

is stored in the Duomo.

The faithful believe it must

turn to liquid today

to ensure Naples' safety

from Vesuvius for another year.

Occasionally, the miracle has not

occurred for instance in 1979.

Then in 1980 the region suffered

a devastating earthquake

from which it is still recovering.

Nearly 3,000 d*ed.

A hundred thousand were homeless.

The miracle has happened.

Vesuvius, the devout believe,

will not harm them for another year.

They offer prayers of thanks.

This land holds their roots;

it is their beloved home.

And once again San Gennaro

has assured them it is safe.

With renewed faith on this bright

and hopeful day,

it is a time to reflect, to look

to the future, and to celebrate.

Yet even as they rejoice,

the faces of the present hauntingly

evoke the faces of the past.

The faces of the living are reflected

in the faces of the dead.

In 1632 the Viceroy of Naples warned:

Children and children's children. Hear

I warn you now. Sooner or

later this mountain takes fire.

Flee so long as you can.

And yet people still return

to the slopes of the mountain,

even to build new town farther up

its broad and fertile flanks.

In years to come,

scientists will continue to be drawn

to the towns of Vesuvius

to probe more deeply

the mysteries of the past,

to ponder the fate of those

whose lives were lost.

Perhaps today the power of man has

become greater than the volcano.

Perhaps science does hold hope

for a future

when Nature can at last be tamed.

Ultimately, perhaps,

it may be the indomitable human spirit

that will prevail.

Those in the shadow of Vesuvius

have been called courageous by some,

foolhardy by others.

The judgment is history's to decide.

For now only this is sure:

if holocaust is only dimly feared,

its specter nevertheless remains.

Long after the sun has disappeared

from the sky,

a mountain's shadow continues to fall.
Post Reply