Secrets of the Villa of the Papyri
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- The Villa of the Papyri was the single most impressive building buried by Vesuvius. Its lavish halls and courtyards contained a stunning collection of artistic masterpieces. But the real treasures were a thousand or so carbonized scrolls...
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:32 Discovery of the villa
1:11 Artistic treasures
1:45 The scrolls
2:29 Opening the scrolls
3:16 Displate
4:09 The contents of the library
5:32 The treasure still hidden
The leaping piglet made me smile.
Such a cute little guy
I’m so excited for the archaeologists to find more and publish them. It makes me cry that many were thrown away as useless lumps of charcoal in the beginning. At least now modern archaeologists understand that with future technologies, we might be able to understand some artifacts like these better. Since then, archaeology has become a science, rather than a hunt for treasure and so many technologies have been developed, like Carbon-14 dating and dendochronology, that early excavators couldn’t have dreamed of. Save everything found at ancient sites!
I worked as a archaeologist for a while in the levant, and carbonized shit is easy to confuse with just general burned debris. Digging what are known as “destruction layers” can get really confusing and messy real quick.
It blew my mind when I realized I was excavating seeds from a amphora that burned in the early Bronze Age.
@@vonp588 I just think it's amazing that we can tell what something was & even read crap offa it 1000 years after a lava flow or house fire burnt it to the ground & it got burried under dozens of meters of dirt. technology & curiosity bruh
Really exciting!
Archaeology has come a long way as a science and moved past the getting artifacts for a patron/museum. I studied archaeology in my youth and worked on several projects here in Tennessee relating to archaic natives and civil war sites. We have come from treasure hunters trampling mummies to dust in search of treasures to discovering that the history and knowledge is gained is priceless.
@@virutech32 what always blew my mind was whenever I handled anything- a pottery sherd, brick/masonry- a pile of animal bones, I was the first person to touch it in thousands of years.
People have been saying for years that we have found most of what is to be found of ancient writing. And then a mummy or something turns up with parts of a lost book in it's wrappings. Thankfully, it never ends.
The reason we know of Pompeii and Herculaneum is because a scholar was an eyewitness. I'm sure similar things has transpired in many places throughout history, forgotten and lost. Mud floods happen every day. One day we will find something even more amazing and on that day I hope we have the tech to excavate it without even touching it :D
Quite right thankful the hunt for knowledge is endless!
@@98Zai You're referring to a preserved letter of Pliny the Younger describing the eruption of Vesuvius and the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder while attempting to rescue friends from the eruption with his naval galleys. It is clearly written and a good read.
*Plot twist:* The treasure still hidden is actually the lost true autobiography of Emperor Claudius and the biography of Caligula written by Agrippina the Younger
If there was a copy of Claudius lost works on the Etruscans and early Roman history buried in there...
@@QuantumHistorian That'd be the find of the century, even if fragmented
Oh, could that be...??? I thought that was just some no-good old paper I found when digging there. I threw it away.
@@larsrons7937 You should have, at least, sold them on eBay...
It could Aristotle's lost Magnum Opus!
This Vesuvius eruption has interested me since I first visited Pompeii as 9 year old. I'm impressed by the amount of details and stories you've been able to dig up.
*A toldinstone video a day keeps the boredom away*
I must source some expensive papyrus or vellum, paint Rick Astley and ink the lyrics to Never Gonna Give You Up in calligraphy over 20 different scrolls, roll it all up and bury them somewhere near Mt Rainier; then in the future an archaeologist spends 40 years of his career unraveling the scrolls to find he has been Rick rolled.
Absolute legend
Rick-Scrolled 🙂
Clever girl 🦖
The Elder Rolls.
❤️😂❤️😂
I've seen those Bronze statues in the museum of Naples. They are absolutely amazing. Incredible to think they were made 2000 years ago..
They just found an amazing statue of Zeus/ Jupiter/Jove in Pompeii. A local guy from Naples just told me.
@@larsrons7937 do you have a link to an article? im very interested
@@timoverdijk3176 Link to an article, no unfortunately not, I only had this conversation in a mobile phone game with a fellow player who was from Napoli and happened to be interested in ancient history. And I don't know when "just found" is, but it must mean some sort of "recently". He did seem wuite impressed about the find so I guess there are online articles about it out there somewhere.
@@timoverdijk3176 Perhaps some museum in the Napoli area could mention it on their homepage? Just a guess.
They are 2000 years old replicas,
of the 2400 years old Greek originals
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Runners_MAN_Napoli_Inv5626-7_n02.jpg
Please do another video with more details of the work of Seales and others to virtually unwrap the scrolls. There has been little or no news since 2019 and I am wondering what is causing this silence. Another issue on which I am sure many would be interested in further information is the results of the latest excavations at the Villa: why are they not trying to dig new tunnels to locate the remaining library? The longer it stays there, the greater the danger that they will be destroyed by natural events. After all, we have the current collection of scrolls dating back to the mid-18th century. Since 1750, there will have been further erosion and water seepage through the ground. It would be tragic to lose this potential treasure trove through inaction...
Probably a matter of funding. diggers need food & pay & not everyone is willing to pour money onto the ground
As far as I know, the team at the University of Kentucky is still trying to "train" their computers to read the scrolls. And unfortunately, there are - to the best of my knowledge - no plans to continue excavations at the Villa itself.
Some people in the region still 'earn' their living by plundering dig sites (like what almost happened with the horse and cart in Pompeii).
Also, the terrain stability issues at Pompeii with a thin layer of pyroclastic deposits over loose pumice have priority over the more stable 20 meter layer that is covering Herculaneum
The problem with excavating more of Pompeii and Herculaneum is that excavation exposes the ruins to the elements. They're already having trouble conserving the buildings that have been uncovered and the general consensus tends to be that, for the time being, the ruins are safer staying underground (where, after all, they've already survived in pristine condition for 2000 years). But unfortunately, that only holds true if the area can be protected from looters. I have no idea if there are any specific threats relating to the Villa of the Papyri, though (such as water seepage). That would, of course, change the equation.
Or you know, the pandemic that didn’t allow them to excavate for 2 years
FIXED: I earlier commented on closed captions turning very dim here, and was able to correct the issue. For whatever reason RUclips introduced font opacity setting of 50%, which can be raised at the bottom of a settings option menu.
Hopefully they contain Claudius's Etruscan dictionary.
We can only hope.
Etruscan? Maybe that's why it didn't make sense to me. Last time I dug there, I found some no-good old papers with some nonsense written, used them to clean my tools and threw them away.
Thank you for including metric conversions.
The Getty villa isn't by any means a faithful reproduction of the Villa of the Papyri. For one thing, it's considerably smaller than the actual villa was, but it does give one a sense of what the real villa looked like.
True, although smaller in scale, the Gelly villa is worth visit. Memorial for sure.
In 1962 I was 9 years old. I was in awe at the power of life . . . volcanoes being one of those examples. We were stationed in Paris and went on a summer camping tour. I wanted to see Pompeii. And on the way to there a wallet was neglected and when we got to a toll plaza discovered the emergency. Turns out, a German tourist found the wallet and turned it in . . . but it was taken to the police station just above the Forum in Rome. Oh, well. Rome was a real treat. Can NEVER forget about "Rome".
I certainly hope that the main library of this Roman villa can be located. It would be wonderful to find such a treasure trove of ancient Roman literature.
thank you for sparking my interest in ancient Rome!
The only reason we know about these papyri is that the city was buried and all its citizens killed. Had the city continued to flourish and inevitably decline, they would have been lost to time, vandalism or accidental fire.
reminds me of an old paleontology documentary I used to watch a lot as a kid. When describing their work one of the paleontologists said "we thrive on carnage" because the best finds are always associated with natural disasters that rapidly killed and buried a large number of organisms.
@@badluckrabbit - Reminds me of a documentary I re-watched recently: hundred upon hundred fossilised animals just died where they stood, slowly and in great pain.
Turns out the cause was an ash-cloud from a supervolcano about a thousand miles away; in fact, it wasn't even known to be a supervolcano until they traced back the ash residue to its source.
This was a predecessor of Yellowstone, when the Hot Spot was further east, migrating across the USA.
ps I'll try to remember the name of that programme: any chance you can remember the name of yours?
Well not all died, many fled early and made it to the coast and departed in boats.
@@franl155 I can do better than that, I just found the show in its entirely on youtube. It's called Dinosaur Hunters
ruclips.net/video/O59Vix3cWMY/видео.html
@@badluckrabbit - oh, thank you!!!!👍
returning the compliment: ruclips.net/video/lpGatD00cMk/видео.html
I love your videos. So well researched and with a unique style. Please give us more especially on Pompeii and Herculaneum. The ancient site of Thera would be cool too.
Thank you! I have much more coming soon on iconic ancient sites.
i just got my copy of your book a couple days ago!!! instantly became one of my favorites, i couldnt stop telling people about it. love the channel and content : )
An amazing story, and one well told. thank you
Oh to find a copy of Claudius' treatise on the Etruscans!
...and so many other lost works. If not here maybe somewhere.
I am afraid that the archeologists working there are afraid to excavate the rest of the building. They talk of preservation, but the site will be buried again some day. The chance to find more scrolls should be enough to justify excavations on the lower levels. Why isn't this happening?
Great work! I hope they find more in the future!
Those statues in the villa of papyri are absolutely gorgeous. Amazing story too.
Another excellent video!
Thank you so much.
And have a great weekend 😀
Thank you. I was sad the video came to an end!
One of the few times I've been this early to a video! Hope you are doing well toldinstone! This is my favorite RUclips channel for the past few months
The biggest problem, as I understand it, is that the papyri were written in a carbon black ink. Once burned, you had carbon-based ink on carbonized papyrus so normal X-ray technology does nothing. Only now, with techniques like X-ray phase-contrast tomography, is non-invasive imaging beginning to make them readable.
The thumbnail is so striking. Feels like it could be a meme. Also this channel is amazing
What a great video, as always!
I cannot thank you enough for the content you provide us with!
I’ve recently bought your book, and I’m really looking forward to reading it. Cheers!
this is one of the most exciting things I have heard of!!! Thanks!
love your videos mate keep it up lad
living in Newcastle growing up around Hadrian’s wall I feel deeply connected to the Roman history of my town, Wallsend. would love to see a video about it
Nice video. Thank you.
wow.. to find a whole library! That would be awesome. Imagine how much history would have to be rewritten!
Wow! I hope they find those undiscovered scrolls in my lifetime.
like your new logo! i'm fascinated by this topic for a long time, as i was in radiology for a little bit. more imaging technologies will ultimately help to unlock a lot of these puzzles. and let's hope there are more scrolls as you stated in the video, somewhere deep!
Excellent video as usual. 👏👏👏👏
Loving the new thumbnails, they're really slick
Wow!! This is amazing that it’s survived all this time.
Dr, Garrett, you are the Best!
garret this is the scariest thumbnail youve ever had i almost had to scroll away!!!
The best take on this find that I have see or read!
There is very little wood artifacts of Campanian architecture from the Roman period (or any from the Roman era, tbh) but the intense temperature of the pyroclastic flow and burial of the buildings in ash, petrified a lot of wood and wood-derived materials, providing, ironically, perfectly preserved insights into the intricacies of the era via their sudden destruction.
Like, even bread was crystallized for posterity 😳
Wasn't the wood carbonised?
@@Kosmonooit yes.
Herculaneum, from what I understand, was much better preserved than the more famous Pompeii. Pompeii lost most (all?) of it's wood, while things like wooden stairs, doors, dividing walls, and shutters were preserved in some of Herculaneum's houses. Herculaneum was also buried under thicker ash layers which preserved the upper floors of buildings, whereas with Pompeii the upper floors were not buried and collapsed. Herculaneum being buried deeper also meant that ancient diggers recovered / looted far less.
@@lycaonpictus9662 pompeii was subject to hours of downfall from ash and rocks which caused the houses to collapse and then eventualy covered by several flows. Thats why most corpses in Pompeii are found high up in the ash layers, they survived until the pyroclastic flows came. And thats why most houses are crushed mess and no wood left since it rotted away in and was never carbonized. You can however see plaster casts of tree trunks close to the arena. Herculaneum was mostly unaffected by downfall but eventually was blasted when the smoke column collapsed under its own weight and caused several rapid hot pyroflows that carbonized wood and killed anyone left instantly. Down by the boat houses along the ancient shore they found a soldier with a coin purse and another person next to a small boat about to flee when the flow hit.
Great video- thanks again
You're very welcome!
Really interesting, great video
Very exciting! Can’t wait until they can access these written treasures. Just imagine if they discovered some of Aristotle’s lost works , so many possibilities.
Thanks for your great documentary, I found the pictures of the villa very good. These people had better architecture than our modern builders. it will be very interesting to see what other lost books are unearthed.
I hope they find those scrolls. We've lost so much knowledge from the past.
really digging your videos. you have the right diction to pronounce words like, 'antiquity,' in a pleasing manner.
fantastic description.
Great video!
thank you for this
This is the best video on RUclips
This is so cool!
Hey, was wondering if you could do a video specifically on boxing in antiquity?
I was trying to find a photo of a korykos but couldn’t come up with anything.
Just really interested in what these ancient punching bags might’ve looked like, and really interested in boxing’s Mediterranean roots in general.
Love the content keep it up, and keep on rolling!
It blows me away how much ancient literature is still unread and untranslated and how much of pompeii is still unexcavated... what are classicists at universities doing? There is a lot to do in the field!!!
I see you haven't heard about the millions of fragments of cuneiform tablets that are stored in little more than giant bins in universities: neither translated, nor re-assembled, nor even catalogued. In general, classicists are more focussed on reinterpreting the same narrow corpus of works that has been popular since the renaissance (I knew a fellow who did his DPhil on how 5th century Greek plays referenced each other - essentially ancient meme culture), than take the risk of getting their hands dirty by doing anything new.
The thing is that an excavation can only be done once, as it destroys the untouched site. It should not be disturbed unless necessary, and the last thing you want to do is a rushed job. Digs done centuries or just decades ago overlooked (and thus made irreversably lost to us) many things we could learn more about, were the digs done with modern methods. In the future archaeologists could glean even more information from excavating a site than we could now.
Then there is the issue of funding. Many places struggle to preserve and maintain what ancient sites are already excavated and are unwilling to fund more.
That being said, the idea of there possibly being an intact Roman library waiting to be dug up makes me drool.
@@AnExcellentChef not to mention that there is an actual town built on top of half of Herculaneum and Villa Papyri.
@@AnExcellentChef Yes there are sections of Pompei that will never be dug in our lifetime for the exact reasons you mentioned. When the next ground breaking technique is developed it will used on a small reserved section. The rest to wait for further improvement in techniques.
And.
Cost.
Awesome video.
Fascinating .
A fascinating story. I did not know of it.
Nice 👌 thanx for sharing 👍
wonderful!! I could've listen a couple hours more...
This channel is so underrated
This is one of the most exciting things that has happened in my lifetime: imagine what may lie in wait. Caesar’s Latin grammar; nine volumes of Sappho…..
That sure is a majestic piglet 😍
These graphics are excellent
AMAIZING!
Hi i'm a huge fan of your content, the recent "update" has been fantastic and the videos are better than ever. I do think there is something with the thumbnails though, even though they look very nice they don't really catch my attention in the same way your old ones did. thought you may want that feedback, thanks for the best free content i have ever recieved!
they have found some antic comedies of the middle-era time line......we didnt even had one work of this whole timeline of centuries, we just know of their victories on contests......so yea, this is amazing.
Le good stuff, i'll watch as i enjoy my meal.
Maybe the most exciting thing in archaeology for the next century. Really really cool
Wow! Where are they in the development of virtually unraveling the texts? Are there any operations underway to excavate the main library? This is really crazy, sorta hit me similarly when I first found out of about the Minoans, and their beautiful frescoes.
That team at the University of Kentucky is apparently making progress with the scrolls, though there haven't been any breakthroughs recently. But there are, to the best of my knowledge, no plans to excavate the rest of the Villa.
Thank you :)
Fascinating
Love your work, it compliments my habits perfectly. You might say I'm toldnstoned
Please keep us posted on the developments surrounding any discovery of the main library thee.
Very cool.
06:07 What an eye-watering prospect.
Thank you for your content. You've taught me a lot of things that are meaningful to me.
Me at university: Follows a class about Pompeii and Herculaneum
Me in my free time: Oh great a new toldinstone video about Pomeii or Herculaneum
It's 3:30 am and the thumbnail scared the shit out of me.
I call dibs on the flying piglet!
The papyrus scrolls thrown away remind me of the layers of city destroyed trying to find Troy.
I wonder if some things are better left undiscovered for the time being.
First of all video, second of all, from the comments it looks like I share the same thoughts of many, who question why there wouldn't be an absolute monumental effort to excavate everything as it seems like the potential for discovery outweighs almost any other archaeological projects I can think of. Just seems odd that the Italian government or even the EU itself, wouldn't be purchasing the entire property to turn the site upside down and see what could be discovered for European history. Clearly there's No other chance where one could potentially find an ancient Roman library. Is the hold up money? Will of the government to purchase the lands? Just seems odd this wouldn't have a higher priority for everyone.
MY FAVORITE ROMAN SUBJECT! Garret, when the papyrus are all decoded by scans and programming we will have great works from 2000 years ago.
Are you going to talk about the Library at Herculaneum ? Quite the excavated find as well.
Amazing to hear that there is more to be excavated! Any word on when that might be started?
Elon, are you listening?
Unfortunately, there are no plans to resume the digs, though it might be possible for visitors to see the (small) excavated part of the Villa in the relatively near future.
@@toldinstone There must be wondrous treasures under the current town of Herculaneum, I saw this and thought
How can anyone stand not digging ?
I've been to Pompeii, but not Herculanum. This makes me want to go. And it is not far from Naples, which is scary given the fact that Vesuvius is still an active volcano.
the cover image of this video looks like frodo looking at golum falling in the pit of fire
Hope this is leading up to a new book cause I've been loving going through Naked Statues
I'm really excited to find out what ancient knowledge we will uncover from the rest of the villa, 50 years from now probably ;(
Exelent.
History is truly fascinating - just a shame human kind doesn’t seem learn from it.
i cant wait to hear the news that the lost textes where uncovered and readeable maybe trough x-ray scanning or ultrasound who knows what waits for us.
You had made the post about upload times and viewership and it got me thinking if you have seen a drop laity I think it could be because of the darker colors used in the thumbnails and profile. I have experimented with it a couple of times and found a drastic decrease in views when I use darker colors.
Ave Imperator Ryan!
Do you know if there are plans to continue excavation of this site, as well as the unexcavated areas of Pompeii?
That thumbnail is the stuff of nightmares.
I hope they will find some works from lost early Latin literature: Ennius, Nevius, Pacuvius... And also maybe some lost historians: Timeus, Callisthenes, and the missing books of Polibius and Livius. And additional plays from classical theater, and... lots of things.
To bad the Villa is not open to the public. Guess we will have to settle for seeing its treasures in the Naples Museum.
Darius Arya managed to get in! Check out his videos
I'd like to know how the Vesuvius eruption impacted antique Rome. How did the Romans respond to two Pompeii and Herculaneum effectively disappearing?