archeologia: Stabiae

Evidence: 94 • authority: 72

Stabiae (Latin: [ˈstabɪ.ae̯]) was an ancient city situated near the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia and approximately 4.5 km (2.79 miles) southwest of Pompeii. Like Pompeii, and being only 16 km (9.9 mi) from Mount Vesuvius, it was largely buried by tephra ash in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in this case at a shallower depth of up to 5 m. Stabiae is most famous for the Roman villas found near the ancient city which are regarded as some of the most stunning architectural and artistic remains from any Roman villas. They are the largest concentration of excellently preserved, enormous, elite seaside villas known in the Roman world. The villas were sited on a 50 m high headland…

Evidence: 54 • authority: 72

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius, a stratovolcano located in the modern-day region of Campania, Italy, erupted, causing one of the deadliest eruptions in history. Vesuvius violently ejected a cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event gives its name to the Vesuvian type of volcanic eruption, characterised by columns of hot gases and ash reaching the stratosphere, although the event also included pyroclastic flows associated with Peléan eruptions. The event destroyed several Roma…

Evidence: 48 • authority: 72

Painting in ancient Rome is a rather poorly understood aspect of Roman art, as there are few survivals, which are mostly wall-paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum and other sites buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, where many decorative wall paintings were preserved under the ashes and hardened lava. A smaller number of paintings survive from other areas, including Rome itself. From the study of surviving paintings it has been possible to form a panorama of the artistic life of Ancient Rome between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire. Nevertheless, this body of works is only a tiny fraction of the great quantity of painting produced in the Roman Empire duri…

Evidence: 46 • authority: 72

Mount Vesuvius ( və-SOO-vee-əs) is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae and other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash and volcanic gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), erupting molten rock and pulverised pumice at the rate of 6×105 cubic…

Evidence: 40 • authority: 88

The AD 79 Vesuvius eruption: stratigraphy, lithofacies variations and impact of the pyroclastic current deposits within the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Stabiae (southern Italy). <p>Plinian eruptions are powerful explosive volcanic events that impact large areas with cubic kilometers of magma emplaced as pyroclastic material accumulated in thick blankets around the volcanic vents. The violence of the emplacement mechanism (i.e., fallout or pyroclastic density currents, PDC) and the sudden burial of the landscape, make these types of eruptions extremely dangerous. Aiming to fully understand these phenomena, an accurate reconstruction of the physical behaviour and the historical record…

Evidence: 40 • authority: 72

Plinian eruptions or Vesuvian eruptions are volcanic eruptions characterized by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption was described in a letter written by Pliny the Younger, after the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder. Plinian eruptions eject columns of volcanic debris and hot gases high into the stratosphere, the second layer of Earth's atmosphere. They eject a large amount of pumice and have powerful, continuous gas-driven eruptions. Eruptions can end in less than a day, or continue for days or months. The longer eruptions begin with production of clouds of volcanic ash, sometimes wit…