Nearly 2,000 years ago, Pompeii was a busy city in what is now southern Italy. People were happy there, and went about their daily lives without having any idea of what was about to happen. The city was very close to a volcano called Mount Vesuvius.

This caused it to throw smoke and dangerous gas high into the air, which soon spread to the town.

Pompeii, and the thousands of people who lived there, was directly in the path of the eruption, and the falling hot stones and burning ash.

For many centuries, there were no signs of what had happened to these people. But now, modern archaeologists have begun to dig up the ruins, and are finding a lot of very interesting things.

The leader of the group explained how surprised they all were by what they found. Everything had been perfectly preserved by the thick layer of ash which covered them.

They were filled with Roman objects, artwork, and even food.

The work was slow but the scientists didn’t give up. The team of archaeologists got bigger and bigger and their work was rewarded when they dug a bit deeper and found the remains of real Roman people, who had had no warning about the eruption.

It was as if they had been eating or sleeping when the ash fell. All life seems to have stopped within minutes.

The work to find more remains has continued, and is going on today, because nobody expected it to be as successful as it has been. This has helped scientists to understand many things.

They have been able to see exactly how people lived and what kinds of things they did.

The Tribune