Archaeologists in Italy found ancient footprints near Naples that reveal a dramatic escape from a volcanic eruption some 3,000 years ago. The discovery was made during enhancement works on the Snam gas pipeline Diramazione Nocera-Cava dei Tirreni, according to ANSA.
Near the location where the footprints were discovered, archaeologists detected a group of burials made in tombs covered with tuff slabs, some of which are decorated with engravings. The burials belong mainly to children.
The site includes not only footprints but also evidence of a village with huts that dates back to the period between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, approximately 1200 to 1150 BCE. The footprints, preserved in pyroclastic deposits near the Casarzano stream, were found alongside pots, plates, and tools. The Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the Provinces of Salerno and Avellino reported that these footprints belong to both humans and animals that were desperately fleeing an eruption of Mount Somma-Vesuvius.
“The footprints are a touching testimony of the dramatic flight of the inhabitants in the face of the volcano’s fury, including men, women, and children, barefoot or with simple footwear, along with their animals,” the Superintendency stated, according to ANSA.
Archaeological investigations were carried out over two years under the scientific direction of the Superintendency, to facilitate the construction of a gas pipeline in the area southeast of Naples.
After extensive analysis of the historical material, researchers established that a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurred during this period, covering the ground with ashes and pyroclastic materials. This eruption predates the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius by over a thousand years.
Despite the devastation, the area continued to be inhabited afterward, as people returned to rebuild and inhabit the site.
Two monumental complexes, possibly rustic villas dedicated to agricultural production dating back to the Roman era, were also uncovered. Another group of burials occupies the space of one of these villas.
Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 CE famously blanketed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash. However, researchers have found that over a thousand years earlier, an eruption had already covered the ground with ashes and incandescent materials.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
