Wed, Oct 23, 2002
Mount Vensuvius has a history of plenium eruptions spaced roughly two to four thousand years apart. Like the eruption that buried Pompeii and Herculeanium in 79 AD, a similar eruption buried a bronze age village near San Paolo Belsito Italy circa 1700 BC. Escavation of the site provides a detailed look at bronze age living conditions. In the remains of homes were found household objects and human skeletons including a burial urn containing a fetus. It appears most residents escaped the village, if not the eruption. But today, hundreds of thousands would need to evacuate to find safety from a major eruption.