Latest news with #excavation
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Archeologists uncover Midstate history
(WHTM) — There's plenty of history in the Midstate and a group of local advocational archeologists are working to uncover more. The Lower Susquehanna Archeological Society group has spent the last two weeks in Lancaster County digging and sifting through the dirt at the Blue Rock Heritage Center. 'We are wrapping up our spring excavation season,' said Paul Nevin, the groups President. 'We've been trying to establish the footprint of a farmhouse that was built in the mid-1800s and was demolished in the 1950s.' Nevin told abc27 News they are trying to help tell the story of the land. 'People have been on this land for thousands of years along the Susquehanna,' he said. 'And so, we find everything from an eight-thousand-year-old projectile point to, you know, sunglasses.' Rick Fisher, the archeological groups Vice President sifted through pounds of dirt Sunday. 'See if we could find any artifacts in native American plumbing or pottery,' Fisher explained. 'I get excited about, but I actually like to find the whole piece. But unfortunately, you know, it breaks like anybody breaks or drops dishes. Then it breaks and then they toss it out, you know? So, we know it's very rare that you'll find a full piece.' The archeological group believes they did find the foundation of the old farmhouse. 'We ran into a little bit of a surprise because we're trying to find a farmhouse that was oriented parallel to the river and the foundation that we found is turned a little bit to the side,' Nevin said. 'So right now, we're at the point where we're wondering whether this actually was an earlier structure, that the house was built over top of.' Nevin said people get involved in archeology because they are interested in history. Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices 'Theres always the element that you're going to find some sort of treasure of some sort,' he said. 'And for us, really, the treasure that we find are just things that people leave behind.' Phase two of this project will begin in the summer and last possibly through the winter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
29-05-2025
- Science
- Fox News
Archaeologists solve grim mystery of 1,500-year-old bucket found at historic tourist site
Print Close By Andrea Margolis Published May 29, 2025 Archaeologists recently discovered the purpose of a mysterious 1,500-year-old bucket at one of England's most historic sites – and it wasn't pleasant. The National Trust released a statement about the Byzantine Bromeswell bucket, found at Sutton Hoo, in May. The site of two ancient Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, Sutton Hoo has offered a wealth of knowledge about pre-Norman British history since its first excavation in 1938. STRANGE VIKING GRAVE WITH 'CHRISTIAN OVERTONES' DISCOVERED BY PERPLEXED ARCHAEOLOGISTS: 'VERY UNUSUAL' During an excavation last summer, archaeologists unearthed the base of the Bromeswell bucket, which dates back to the 6th century. Different fragments of the bucket were uncovered in past excavations, but this latest discovery gave researchers more to study. With the base in hand, researchers quickly went to work to analyze the artifact with a variety of techniques, including computerized tomography, CT scans and X-rays – and they found an answer. In a morbid turn of events, experts learned the bucket was used to hold the cremated remains of an important person, and their grave goods. "The cremated human and animal bones uncovered confirm the find was used as a cremation vessel," the National Trust noted. The organization added, "Cremated human bones included parts of a talus (ankle bone) and fragments of a skull vault (the upper part of the skull that protects the brain)." "It's a remarkable mixture – a vessel from the southern, classical world containing the remains of a very northern, very Germanic cremation." The bucket dates back to the 500s. It's decorated with a hunting scene depicting men armed with swords and shields, as well as dogs and lions – painting a vivid picture of life in the past. "The latest fragments include feet, paws, the base of shields and even the missing face of one of the men," the statement described. It is believed the bucket came from Antioch in the Byzantine Empire, now located in modern Turkey. The National Trust noted, "Letterforms used within the bucket's design suggest it was made in the 6th century, meaning it was already 100 years old when it arrived here at Sutton Hoo." Researchers also found "a mystery object" that turned out to be a double-sided comb made from an antler. Interestingly, the object had not been burned. LATE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT DATING BACK 3,000 YEARS UNCOVERED AMID ROAD WORK: 'IMPORTANT DISCOVERY' The National Trust said the presence of the comb suggests the Anglo-Saxons took grooming seriously, as combs have been found in male and female burials before. "Slightly less romantically, combs also would have been useful in the control of lice," the statement said. "Although the human bone in the cremation couldn't be sexed, it's hoped that ancient DNA from the owner might survive on the comb, and analysis could reveal more about them." National Trust archaeologist Angus Wainwright said that he was "hopeful" future research will uncover new insight into "this very special burial." For more Lifestyle articles, visit "We knew that this bucket would have been a rare and prized possession back in Anglo-Saxon times, but it's always been a mystery why it was buried," Wainwright said. "Now we know it was used to contain the remains of an important person in the Sutton Hoo community." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Anglo-Saxon expert Helen Geake told the National Trust the puzzle of the Bromeswell bucket has "finally" been solved. "It's always been a mystery why it was buried." "Now we know that it is the first of these rare objects ever to have been used in a cremation burial," she said. "It's a remarkable mixture – a vessel from the southern, classical world containing the remains of a very northern, very Germanic cremation." She also said the find "epitomizes the strangeness" of Sutton Hoo, which has captivated British history enthusiasts for decades. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "It has ship burials, horse burials, mound burials and now bath-bucket burials," Geake observed. "Who knows what else?" Print Close URL
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Blue Peter launches Walking With Dinosaurs competition to win a visit to an active prehistoric dig site in Canada
Blue Peter is offering one lucky viewer the chance to live out every dinosaur lover's dream - joining real life palaeontologists on a live dig site in Canada, as part of a once-in-a-lifetime competition inspired by the return of Walking With Dinosaurs. On this week's episode of Blue Peter (5pm, Friday 23 May, CBBC and BBC iPlayer), young dinosaur fans aged 6 to 12 will be challenged to let their imaginations roam free. Viewers will be invited to conjure up their own prehistoric creature - sketching its appearance, detailing its unique abilities, and describing the lost world it once inhabited. Children will also have the chance to explain why they dream of becoming a Blue Peter dino hunter, competing for the ultimate reward - an unforgettable experience at one of the most exciting fossil excavation sites on Earth. Guided by palaeontologist Dr Emily Bamforth, who features in the new series, the winner will get hands-on experience working alongside experts uncovering the remains of one of the largest dinosaur herds ever discovered. In Alberta, Western Canada, scientists are unearthing the secrets of Pachyrhinosaurus, a formidable herbivore closely related to Triceratops, that roamed the planet millions of years ago. This groundbreaking dig is set to feature in an upcoming episode of Walking With Dinosaurs, as the beloved series makes its return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Sarah Muller, Senior Head of Children's Commissioning +7, BBC Children's and Education, says: 'Blue Peter is known for its amazing competitions and working with the Walking With Dinosaurs team means we're able to supersize this incredible prize. We want to hear from children with original, creative ideas, who are passionate about dinosaurs and looking for an amazing adventure.' To mark the launch of the competition, Blue Peter presenter Abby Cook heads to Scotland's Isle of Skye, retracing the steps of dinosaurs whose fossilised footprints reveal their ancient presence. Meanwhile, back in the studio, excitement reaches new heights as the team comes face-to-face with a walking T rex. Video creator and scientist Big Manny will join the judging panel alongside representatives from Blue Peter and Walking With Dinosaurs. The Blue Peter Walking With Dinosaurs competition officially opens for entries at 5pm on Friday 23 May and will remain open until 5pm on Monday 30 June 2025. The winner—who will also receive a framed winner's certificate and an exclusive orange Blue Peter badge—will be announced later in the year on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, alongside the top runners-up. Full details of how to enter, including competition rules and privacy notice can be found on the Blue Peter website at Blue Peter is made by BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions for BBC Children's & Education. Blue Peter is on at 5pm, Friday 23 May, CBBC and BBC iPlayer The new series of Walking With Dinosaurs starts at 6.25pm, Sunday 25 May, BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Watch Blue Peter on CBBC and BBC iPlayer Read more: Walking With Dinosaurs - Everything you need to know about the ground-breaking series Read more: The life of a palaeontologist in Alberta HH
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
A T-rex with lips? Predators with pink eyebrows? Walking with Dinosaurs is back to challenge everything you know
I've been under work pressure many times before, but nothing has prepared me for this. In Alberta, Canada on a palaeontology dig being filmed for the return of the BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs, I have been allowed to unearth a dinosaur bone. It has not seen the light of day for about 73m years, and now, armed with just a hammer, awl and brush, I am chipping away at the rock around it to bring it to human eyes for the first time. One tap too hard in the wrong place and the fossilised bone could break. Fortunately, I'm guided by more than just my recollections of the archaeology series Time Team. Overseeing me at Alberta's Pipestone Creek Bonebed is leading Canadian palaeontologist Emily Bamforth, one of the advisers on the revival of WWD – the hit turn-of-the-millennium series which recreated extinct species through CGI and animatronics. The bones we are excavating, Bamforth says, are thought to have been caused when a flash flood or fire engulfed a herd of horned, herbivore dinosaurs (found only in North America) called Pachyrhinosaurus. As if the poor creatures hadn't suffered enough, they now have me trying to unearth them. At first it is hard to differentiate between rock and remains. But Pipestone Creek Bonebed has one of the densest concentrations of dinosaur bones in the world, up to 200 bones per square metre. The prehistoric graveyard contains an estimated 10,000 creatures that will take more than a century to excavate – so it is not long before the 'bone salad', as one of the dig team calls it, is apparent. Fortunately, with Bamforth's guidance (and while humming the Jurassic Park theme tune under my breath) I complete my task without breaking anything. I then watch her team expertly remove a large bone from the ground using a plaster 'jacket' to protect it during its journey to be cleaned and analysed in a laboratory at the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum where Bamforth is curator. Her work, and that of more than 200 palaeontologists around the world, has helped inform the look of the new WWD, with their discoveries informing the dinosaurs' behaviours and appearance on screen. A lot has changed since the Kenneth Branagh-narrated series first aired in 1999, including the fact that many people now believe dinosaurs, like dragons, did not actually exist. WWD showrunner Kirsty Wilson explains that talking to people while travelling during the two years of filming, she realised, 'so many people … used to seeing [dinosaurs] in Jurassic Park etc … think of them as mythical animals'. One taxi driver even asked her if dragons are real. Whether our post-factual world, AI or the popularity of TV series such as House of the Dragon are to blame, who knows? But Wilson hopes this series will disabuse people of that notion. She says whereas the original WWD 'was purely visual special effects and animatronics [with] no dig sites involved at all, this time around, we're … doing our homework for the audience to see. We wanted to feature the real science that goes on.' Focusing on one individual dinosaur in each of the six episodes – now narrated by actor Bertie Carvel – is another difference from the 1999 original. This will, Wilson says, 'bring to life really cracking stories that will keep everybody engaged. What we really hope is that people will be emotionally involved with these animals as real animals.' They range from a single dad Spinosaurus – the largest carnivorous dinosaur to walk the earth – to a lovesick, herbivore Lusotitan. Thomas says the genesis for reviving WWD was its 25th anniversary plus the runaway success in 2022 of a show she worked on called Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough, which used a prehistoric graveyard to tell the story of the demise of the giant reptiles. Wilson explains: 'We wanted to bring back WWD and tap into that nostalgia, legacy, and all the things that made the series so brilliant, but also completely reimagine it … bring it up to date and do something new and exciting with it.' That includes the latest thinking about some dinosaurs' appearance, which might prove a huge surprise. In the Currie Museum's lab and collection, Bamforth and WWD assistant producer Sam Wigfield show me some of the fossils of leaves, skin, teeth and bone that have changed palaeontologists' view of dinosaurs. 'In our Tyrannosaurus rex episode, the T rexes have lips, which is not a Jurassic Park feature because they want to show off all the teeth. But actually the growing consensus is they had lips, which is less Hollywood, but more scientifically accurate,' says Wigfield. As well as showing that various dinosaurs were feathered, the reptiles will also be depicted in a much more exciting range of skin tones than the previous brown or green. 'In the natural world we see a vast array of very bright colours,' says Bamforth. 'We worked with palaeontologists and experts to introduce flashes of colour … So we have Albertosaurus – terrifying predators – with pink eyebrows.' To make the show more realistic, the computer-generated dinosaurs have been put against real-life locations similar to their own habitat. Crew members like Wigfield and production manager Emma Chapman acted out the parts of the creatures using cutouts, tape measures and tennis balls on poles so every move could be worked out. They even used pizza boxes on their feet to smooth over their tracks to save having to pay VFX specialists to 'wipe out' their prints on screen. Chapman – who has been instrumental in making the show's logistics work – recounts another trick used to save VFX money: 3D-printing a giant blue screen dinosaur head to get the right ripples in water. Getting moving water to look natural is expensive, so a 2-metre model of a Spinosaurus head was made and shipped to the filming location in Portugal. But she says even that was quite challenging, 'because the director wanted it to sink, because a Spinosaurus swims. So we were in a swimming pool, burrowing holes in it to try to get this thing to sink!' Due to fans' love for the first series, there is 'added pressure', says Chapman, but after the release of the trailer, excitement is building among fans of the original – many of whom now have children and will bring a new generation to what Thomas calls the 'BBC's iconic intellectual property'. With its worldwide appeal (the first series was watched by 700 million viewers globally) WWD is likely to make the Philip J Currie Museum a TV tourism hotspot, particularly as it is offering 'palaeontologist for a day' trips to go on a dig. Speaking after my dig, Bamforth says she is 'hopeful' WWD will make dinosaurs 'more real for people' who may 'struggle to understand that dinosaurs were real in the sense that animals today are real. It's so long ago and they're so alien to anything we have today.' Walking with Dinosaurs airs on BBC One and iPlayer on 25 May
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Telegraph
Why the man in charge of Pompeii doesn't want you to visit
I am perching on a kerb in Pompeii (built high so that Pompeiian sandals might avoid the street-level sewage) waiting to enter a newly excavated house, not yet open to the public, in Region IX of the city. The bright sunshine that blesses southern Italy in February exposes furrows on the ancient stones made by carriages that drove through the streets in AD 79. It's the same Mediterranean light that hit the same stones days before the ash and pumice, spurting from Vesuvius, turned day into night. It's one of those rare moments when it's possible to zone out from modern Pompeii's selfie sticks, penis fridge magnets and cacophony of guides. I don't think I believe in ghosts but I am tingling all over. I pass through an understated gate into what looks like a building site. Understated because this is in fact a portal to the biggest excavation in a generation, a 3,000-square-metre city block. The house we are visiting in Via di Nola was part of the focus of the recent BBC documentary Pompeii: The New Dig, which charted its excavation. The dwelling, next to a bakery and a laundry, partly excavated between 1888 and 1891, had been undergoing building work in AD 79. Three skeletons were found there, thought to be enslaved people who were locked in the small room with no means of escape. In the atrium of the main house I gawp at the fresco of a 'pizza', a story that was delivered around the world in 2023 when Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii and the reason I am here, pointed out the likeness. In front of me is a painting of a piece of flat, round bread topped with nuts and possibly dates. In fact, the Neapolitans are said to be the first people to have eaten pizza – in the 18th century. At best, you can call this an ancestor of the pizza. It wouldn't make the cut at Domino's. Next I walk into a black-walled banqueting room, momentarily reminding me of Adrian Mole's bedroom. It was probably painted so in order to hide the grubby stains made from the soot created by the oil lamps – and is all the better to show off bright frescoes inspired by the Trojan wars. One depicts Apollo wooing Cassandra with his lyre; another shows Paris meeting Helen of Troy sporting a transparent dress (very Met Gala) with hunting dog in tow. At its official unveiling Zuchtriegel explained: 'People would meet to dine after sunset; the flickering light of lamps had the effect of making the images appear to move, especially after a few glasses of good Campanian wine.' The director appears out of nowhere. Forget the booming presence of many of the folk who run major cultural institutions; he prefers a low-key approach. After the photo shoot, which he politely tolerates, we retire to his office, a 10-minute walk away. Zuchtriegel, 43, has been director of Pompeii for four years. The archeologist, originally from Weingarten in southern Germany but an Italian citizen since 2020, previously served on the technical secretariat of the EU-funded Great Pompeii Project, to develop a programme of conservation, maintenance and restoration, and worked on the 2015 exhibition Pompeii and Europe 1748-1943. He spent the five years before he was made Pompeii capo running Paestum, the archeological park south of Pompeii. You might think that with fluent Italian and a degree in classical archaeology, prehistory and Greek philology from the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, plus a doctorate in archaeology from Bonn, he was the perfect match for Pompeii, but Zuchtriegel's appointment was controversial. When he was made director in 2021, Irene Bragantini and Stefano De Caro, two members of Pompeii's scientific committee of four, resigned. The latter argued: 'It is difficult for [Zuchtriegel] to have sufficient experience to decide, manage and direct conservation and above all restorations, where it is very easy to make mistakes but spend millions.' Well, he seems to be coping. We are here because he has written his first book as director, The Buried City: Unearthing the Real Pompeii, which is published in the UK this month. 'It's actually not a very long book but it wasn't my plan to write everything about Pompeii,' he says modestly. In fact, he has written an essential read for anyone interested in this extraordinary place – or indeed anyone interested in running an organisation with baggage. He has a light touch, yet is philosophically challenging. Stephen Fry has called it 'the best book on Pompeii I've ever read'. When I mention this Zuchtriegel shrugs. I can't tell whether it's that modesty again or if he hasn't heard of his British superfan. One of my favourite stories from the book, I tell him, is the 'curse' of the city. 'Every week packets and parcels arrive in Pompeii containing pumice, mosaic tesserae or shards that someone has pinched,' he writes. 'The remorse comes years, sometimes decades, later.' A legend suggesting that there is a hex on those who loot prompts people to consider whether their bad luck has come from that 'souvenir' on their desk. The returned artefacts often come with guilt-ridden letters. Zuchtriegel is the priest in Pompeii's confessional. 'I've read about divorces, job dismissals and even cancer diagnoses,' he says. Our conversation turns to tourism. In the book, Zuchtriegel lays out his hope that fewer people will come to the site, perhaps an unpopular mission for a director of a tourist attraction. Yet what he wants is for those who do come to have longer, deeper experiences here and at other sister sites, rather than coming in on a cruise ship for a three-hour box-ticking circuit. 'It is better to have someone here staying three days and visiting the other sites than three people coming only for half a day. It's not sustainable,' he says. 'This is also my approach in teaching art history: it's better to pause over one thing for three hours than look at 10 paintings at the same time. Because then you understand something that you can apply to everything.' Pompeii has recently set limits of 20,000 visitors a day, down from last year's 36,000. Won't this hit its coffers? Funding comes mostly from the €18 (£15) entrance tickets and part of that income goes to the state to sustain smaller museums throughout Italy. Zuchtriegel seems relaxed. 'This is not going to have any economic effect on the park,' he says. 'It is possible to have this limitation but still develop the site economically. But this depends on our choices.' In the book he expresses his wish to focus more attention on sites outside Pompeii, to spread the love. Rural areas, such as nearby Boscoreale, have the opposite problem – fewer visitors than they could accommodate. 'What you have is two problems where one is the solution to the other,' he says. 'If you could bring people to visit the other sites around Pompeii it might help people lower the pressure on the site.' Such a strategy is also smart from a research perspective. Two thirds of Pompeii has been excavated; in the countryside less than five per cent has been excavated. The scientific potential is huge. One of the most exciting recent finds has been at Civita Giuliana, a villa complex to the north of Pompeii which had undergone some excavation years ago. Work resumed there in 2017 (a tunnel network has been found in which a previous owner had smuggled out antiquities, a prosecutable crime). A slave room was discovered with a bed, which gives a sense of how the poor people of AD 79 lived. 'There must have been a huge workforce. Potentially 80 to 100 people found space there,' Zuchtriegel says. He makes the point that great monuments, palaces and temples are much more likely to survive millennia rather than 'a hut or a humble place where enslaved people lived'. Was its discovery a highlight of his career? He pauses for a stretch long enough to cook a sort-of pizza. 'Yes, I would definitely say so,' he says. In fact my conversation with Zuchtriegel contains more long pauses than a Harold Pinter double bill, especially when I ask him what he believes to be his achievements so far. If it's initially disconcerting, it's eventually refreshing in a world where those in charge tend to have an immediate soundbite for everything. 'You could look at achievements and try to make a list, some kind of top 10, but what is essential is the atmosphere and the context that you create as a leader,' he says. 'Of course we try to give support [to visitors] and there is an app, guides, books, panels and a map, but there should also be space for your own [thoughts] as everyone has a different experience of Pompeii.' He's talking to my hot stones moment. 'We tend to think that we have to do something: we go to a museum where we have to do something but the real change comes if you get to the 'being' and don't remain on the 'doing'.' This is a man who has read his German philosophers. 'Many things happen if you come to Pompeii,' he adds. He's not wrong; if you're Madonna, for instance, you might leave with your pockets a little lighter than when you arrived. In his early days as director, Zuchtriegel conceived a project – Sogno di Volare (I Dream of Flying) – to bring in local school children to perform in Pompeii's amphitheatre, once home to gladiatorial battles. 'Madonna had this wish to visit the site and so we came in contact and I told her about this project,' he says. 'It took so long to explain it to many people, starting from the school and the teachers and my colleagues here. 'It's not our core business!'' he says, mimicking the naysayers. 'Madonna immediately decided this was something worth supporting.' With her Ray of Light Foundation, the star – who celebrated her 66th birthday in Pompeii last year – has funded the entirety of the 2024-25 season with a reported €250,000 (£212,000) donation. It's just the beginning, says Zuchtriegel. He is hoping to bring in more local philanthropists. I presume he wouldn't agree to having branded signs on Pompeii's houses? 'Visibility is OK,' he says, surprising me. 'You want to thank people, you want this to be known, it's an added value; someone decided to support Pompeii. Why? Because he shared our vision. So it is much more than the economic contribution.' Watch out for the House of the Painters sponsored by Dulux, or, maybe, Badedas hitting up the Stabian Baths. We have talked of what's here to see but, in the book, Zuchtriegel touches on what has been lost and the live issue of restitution. Should the treasures from Pompeii, in museums around the world, be returned? Another Pinter-esque pause. 'Well, in Etruscan Places, DH Lawrence travelled through Etruria in 1927 and visited a lot of Etruscan tombs and wrote beautifully about this experience,' says Zuchtriegel. 'He says that museums are wrong, but if you must have museums, let them be small. So the idea is that taking something away from its original context is always some kind of violent intervention.' Zuchtriegel says you can feel this very clearly in Pompeii during excavations. 'You see all the objects in situ and it would be so fantastic to show this in the moment of excavation and we try to do this to a certain point, where you can see the pot on the fireplace and the statues where they were found… with the light from that period and the acoustics.' He sighs. 'And then you go to the Metropolitan Museum and you see the frescoes from Pompeii and Pompeii walls, and statues in museum halls, and it all tastes so wrong.' And the Parthenon marbles? 'I certainly understand why they want it,' Zuchtriegel says of the Greek government. 'If you go to London, you see it out of context, in a gallery of paintings, and you see it at eye level, which was not the original position [it was originally 13 metres above ground]... it was part of a building and now it is part of some gallery which maybe is necessary if you want to really look at it, but you couldn't do this in the 5th century BC. So it is always a very difficult question.' In fact Pompeii has its own hot potato: the statue of Doryphoros – the Roman 1st or 2nd century BC marble copy of a lost bronze by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos, depicting a warrior. It is currently in the Minneapolis Institute of Art [MIA]. The Italians say that it was looted in the 1970s from Stabiae, an ancient city about three miles southwest of Pompeii, and insist that fragments were smuggled to Switzerland. We know it was displayed in a museum in Munich in the 1980s, then it disappeared in 1984, and was acquired by the MIA in 1986 for $2.5 million (£2 million). The institute claims it was found off the coast of Italy in international waters. If true, that would scupper Italy's claim to the statue. In February 2022, an Italian magistrate ruled for its return, yet so far MIA is holding firm. Zuchtriegel looks towards the window. 'Morally it should come back, absolutely, I think maybe because it's not from Pompeii but a site that is very important for the history of the whole region, but lesser known,' he says. It would galvanise his ambition to send more people to a less economically robust city and away from overrun Pompeii. 'Absolutely,' Zuchtriegel says. 'When we talked with American colleagues many years ago to find an agreement to bring the statue back, one of the colleagues from the US raised the question: 'Where would you exhibit the statue? Because we are a great museum.' Which is true. Their idea was to ask, 'Would you have an equally important place [to display it]?' And I thought, 'This shows that you haven't understood anything.'' Another sigh. 'Of course I would bring the statue back to Castellammare di Stabia.' For Zuchtriegel, authenticity trumps visitor heft. 'From the part of Italy it's very clear, we have a court order, so it is now more of a diplomatic question. Leaders should come together and see if they can resolve this.' Perhaps this is one of the good things about Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump getting on? It's complicated, he says. MIA is a private foundation, which has little to do with the US federal government, and Pompeii is ruled by the Italian Ministry of Culture. 'So you also have to find the right levels [of communication]. But I don't give up the hope that we will see the statue returned. The hope is that it's not going to be a fight but a win-win situation, maybe a collaboration.' Even if it takes time, you feel he will be here in Italy to see it. Zuchtriegel lives in Pompeii and nearby Naples with his wife Katharina, a Berliner who he met in Italy, and their two children, Carlotta and Gianni, who are at school in Naples. The couple first came to Italy in 2012 and married during the pandemic in 2020 in Roscigno in Campania, the same year that Zuchtriegel, who learnt Italian at university, became an Italian citizen. 'Learning a new language can actually be like reinventing yourself,' he says. 'There is a great possibility of letting things go, your past, which you really don't need anymore. So learning a different language is also learning a different way of talking and thinking.' Someone who knows him told me that he's funnier, lighter in Italian. He pauses. 'I have moments when I can't stand myself in Italian and German,' he laughs. His children are unlikely to be archeologists, he says. They are 'traumatised by too many museum visits. But this is fine.' Anyway, he makes the point that being an archeologist is not easy. I wonder if it's going to get even harder with AI making aspects of the job obsolete. He nods. 'I think that a certain kind of archeology is really over.' Did he just talk himself out of a job? 'Traditionally what you brought into the scientific community was the data,' Zuchtriegel says. 'You could find thousands of articles from the last two centuries, a new painted tombstone, a new archaic statue – this is what people had and would share, on which careers were based. Now with AI all this is automated. Let's say you find a painting in Pompeii and you use AI to give me all the dating and comparisons and models and you get that in probably less than one minute.' Yes, I scoff, but how much will it get wrong? 'I think very little,' Zuchtriegel replies. 'If this work is not appreciated any more as you can do it automatically, then what is the role of the archeologist? Imagine you have the data in no time.' He clicks his fingers. 'It will all be about what you are making of it – and what is your contribution to the contemporary discourse.' So Pompeii is investing in AI, he says, at the level of conservation. 'But these developments are so large-scale that we have to imagine it's changing anyway whether we invest or not.' Meanwhile, one of the biggest challenges is not digging for treasures. In The Buried City he posits the need to leave further excavation to future generations. Pompeii was discovered in the 16th century. Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon 's little sister who bankrolled much of Pompeii's early excavations in the early 19th century, believed that the whole city could be unearthed in three years. Thankfully, this was a gross overstatement. Early excavations didn't always prioritise conservation and techniques have much improved and should continue to do so. 'They didn't know that tiles or bones could be important; they threw bones away!' Zuchtriegel says. 'Today we can make DNA analysis.' 'How much we have lost in the last two and a half centuries,' he mourns. 'Paintings faded away and walls collapsed. It's the big issue in Pompeii. The measure we will be judged by is the conservation side, it's not the discoveries or the publications and it's certainly not the visitors.' I can't help but think that the latest dig in Region IX has helped seal his own reputation. Of excavating, he says: 'It is a huge temptation and I think it is a bit like making debt with other people's money. You have to excavate something and build careers on that; it really has changed careers.' Yet he says there is little evidence to prove that new excavation attracts more visitors to a site. 'And who is going to pay for the debt of future generations who have to do the maintenance and the monitoring?' The unsexy bit. 'Yes, the unsexy bit. I don't think we should ban excavation… but you always have to know what you are doing.' Zuchtriegel writes in The Buried City of how, maybe after a few drinks, he and his colleagues play 'choose your favourite house in Pompeii'. I ask him about this parlour game. This time he doesn't need to think for too long. 'The House of the Vettii, which I have been studying since university,' he says. He's referring to the Roman townhouse that closed for 20 years and reopened in 2023 after a period of restoration. It was probably the home of two brothers, freedmen who had risen to prominence through the selling of wine and, they now think, through prostitution. In the house they found an advert for a Greek enslaved woman and erotic images among paintings and decorations that showcase the Pompeiian style close to the time of the eruption. Zuchtriegel continues. 'It becomes an old, familiar place, a place almost in your soul. These people become part of your imagination even if they are from 2,000 years ago.' I see that this parlour game is absolutely no game to him. 'The two Vettii and the slave girl, of course it is an illusion, but they almost become part of your family.'
