Pompeii Rediscovered

1592

Italian workers digging a channel for the Sarno River near Naples uncovered decorated walls and mosaics, the first glimpse of the buried Roman city of Pompeii. The discovery was largely ignored for another century and a half, when proper excavations would begin and transform European taste overnight. Systematic excavation would not begin until the 1740s, but the preserved city then transformed European art and understanding of the ancient world.