Late Night Live

On 24 August in 79 AD, Mt Vesuvius erupted, and over the course of August 24th and 25th it completely buried the city of Pompeii and its surrounds in six feet of volcanic ash. It lay undiscovered until it was accidentally found in 1599 by an architect who was looking to change the course of a river.

However, it remained undisturbed until the middle of the 18th century and since then it's been the site of intense archaeological activity. In fact, Pompeii has the distinction of being the longest non-stop archaeological dig in history.

At present there are almost thirty different archaeological projects being conducted at Pompeii.

Guests

Jean-Paul Descoeudres
Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Geneva.

Dr Steven Ellis
Associate Professor of Classics in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati.

Further Information

Pompeii at the Nicholson Museum, Sydney

Story Researcher and Producer

Kris Short

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