Excavation of Herculaneum Begins

May 1738

Workers digging a well shaft near Naples broke through into the buried theater of Herculaneum, entombed since Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Tunneling through hardened volcanic rock, they pulled out bronze statues, frescoes, and carbonized scrolls. The ancient world was literally underfoot. Pompeii's excavation, a decade later, would follow this first astonishing breach.