Footprints fleeing Bronze Age eruption of Vesuvius found

An archaeological survey in the Salerno area, southern Italy, has uncovered the footprints of people and animals fleeing an eruption of Vesuvius 2,000 years before the one that annihilated Pompeii. The footprints were left in the pyroclastic rocks deposited in the catastrophic Avellino eruption of ca. 2000 B.C. The eruption was larger with a wider dispersal field than the one that engulfed Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D.

For two years, archaeologists have been excavating in four municipalities in the Salerno area in advance of natural gas pipeline upgrades. The footprints of men, women, children, some barefoot, some shod, and animals were found near the Casarzano stream, evidence that a community lived in the shadow of the Somma-Vesuvius complex in the early Bronze Age.

Even after the massive eruption, people returned to live there. The archaeological excavation found evidence of habitation between the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (1200/1150-900 B.C.). The remains of earth foundations of huts were unearthed and a large number of ceramic fragments attesting to an organized, well-populated village that stood at the site.

Occupation continued after that. The team found evidence of continuous use of the area from the Bronze Age footprints to Late Antiquity.

From the Hellenistic period (3rd–2nd centuries BCE), an extra-urban sanctuary near Nuceria Alfaterna was uncovered, located on a major communication route. Among the recovered objects were miniaturized ceramics, possibly used as votive offerings.

During the Roman period, the area hosted two monumental complexes identified as rustic villas dedicated to agricultural production. The identification of plow marks at various points on the site evidences intense agricultural activity, which was the foundation of the local economy. These villas functioned not only as production centers but also as integral parts of an extensive regional trade network. […]

In Late Antiquity, the area was inhabited by communities that built large huts reminiscent of protohistoric dwellings. This return to archaic housing models, likely influenced by socio-economic changes, reflects the resilience and adaptability of these communities to historical transformations.

* This article was originally published here