Footprints Of Pompeii Residents Running From Mount Vesuvius Were Uncovered In Italy

More than 1,000 years before Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 C.E., another eruption caused the residents of villages on the Italian coast to run for their lives.
Their footprints were preserved in the pyroclastic deposits for millennia, according to the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape of Salerno and Avellino.
Recently, these footprints, along with other historical artifacts, were revealed during construction work on a gas pipeline near Vesuvius.
For the past two years, archaeologists have been conducting excavations alongside construction work to update a gas pipeline.
The pipeline runs past the Nocera Superiore, Nocera Inferiore, Roccapiemonte, and Castel San Giorgio municipalities in the southeast of Naples.
The project has led to the discovery of treasures dating from the Bronze Age (3300 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E.) to Late Antiquity (the 3rd to 7th centuries C.E.).
The most interesting find was footprints next to a stream dating back to the Bronze Age. The tracks were made as people and animals tried to flee from an earlier eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Aside from the footprints, a trove of treasures was unburied, including the remnants of huts from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age.
Miniature ceramics and pottery crafted by local individuals from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E. were also found in the region.

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During the Roman era, two large complexes were built in the area. Based on the plow furrows nearby, they might have been meant for agricultural production.
The archaeologists also reconstructed the ancient road system that was once part of the region. At least 40 streets were identified, and they ranged from simple dust paths to more complex routes that contained grooves from wagon wheels. They helped shape life in the city for centuries.
Furthermore, the archaeologists found multiple groups of burials. Some of them date to the Roman era and Late Antiquity.
They were covered in stone slabs with engravings and mostly held the remains of children. Another burial contained a coffin that likely belonged to an individual of high status.
Finally, the research team uncovered longhouses from Late Antiquity that were constructed in a similar way to prehistoric dwellings.
“This return to housing patterns of the past, likely due to socio-economic changes, testifies to human communities’ ability to adapt in the face of transformations,” wrote the researchers.
Mount Vesuvius is famous for its eruption in 79 A.D., blanketing the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash. Last year, it was revealed that victims of the eruption had died when the extreme heat caused their blood to boil and their heads to explode.
While the eruption from 1,000 years before is lesser known, it still must have struck terror into the hearts of the residents.
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