Escape from Pompeii - Steven L. Tuck

A story of triumph out of tragedy, uncovered in the ashes of Vesuvius The archaeological park of Pompeii is one of the most famous sites of destruction anywhere in the world. From the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE until the eighteenth century, Pompeii and its neighbor Herculaneum lay preserved under a thick layer of volcanic material. Since excavations began three hundred years ago, Pompeii has been revealing the secrets of its victims and the ordinary shape of their lives prior to the catastrophe. But did anyone survive the disaster?In popular culture, the eruption is viewed as an apocalyptic event in which everyone died, while scholars generally assume that some escaped. Steven L. Tuck settles that debate. He starts by establishing the circumstances and timeline of the eruption and the evidence that people at both Pompeii and Herculaneum had the chance to escape the eruption. From there, he moves to the search for survivors. Using evidence from inscriptions supported by archaeological, documentary, and literary sources, Tuck finds survivors in twelve different communities and uncovers details on how they rebuilt their lives, livelihoods, and identities after fleeing the volcano. While some survivors integrated quickly into their new communities and used their new city''s name in the personal names of their first generation, others preserved cultural markers from their destroyed communities through language, religious dedications, and renewed businesses. Many of
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