For three days in August of 79, death rained down on the Roman towns surrounding Mount Vesuvius, as the volcano’s epic eruption laid waste to everything in its path.  Buried a few days after Pompeii, the small but wealthy village of Herculaneum, on the north side of the volcano, had more time to panic and evacuate than its more famous neighboring city.

The eruption eventually covered the town in up to 60 feet of ash and mud, making the excavations of the site labor intensive and complicated, but safekeeping the ancient city in a remarkable state of preservation. Even wood was preserved at Herculaneum.