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ROME (Reuters) – The volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii probably took place two months later than expected, Italian officials said Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: A tourist walks in an ancient Roman cobblestone street of the Pompeii site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on October 13, 2015. Photo taken on October 13, 2015. REUTERS / Alessandro Bianchi – / File Photo
Historians have traditionally dated the disaster until August 24, 79 AD, but excavations on the vast site of southern Italy have uncovered a charcoal inscription on a wall indicating a date corresponding to the October 17.
The writing came from an area of a house that was apparently being renovated just before the eruption of nearby Vesuvius, burying Pompei under a thick blanket of ashes and rocks.
"Being a charcoal, fragile and evanescent, which could not last long, it is very likely that it was written in October 79 AD," said Massimo Osanna, head of the Pompeii site.
The date of August 24 comes from an account of the explosion given by Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption and talked about it about 30 years later in two letters to his friend. Roman historian Tacitus.
However, previous excavations have uncovered a calcified branch containing berries that normally only come out in the fall. The discovery of a few blazes over the years also suggested that the disaster did not occur at the height of the summer.
Osanna suggested that the exact date could have been October 24th.
The Minister of Culture, Alberto Bonisoli, presented this weak writing on an uncovered white wall, calling it an "extraordinary discovery".
"Today, with much humility, we may be rewriting the story books because we are dating from the eruption until the second half of October. "said Bonisoli.
Reportage of Giulia Segreti; Edited by Crispian Balmer and David Stamp
