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Amid the city’s ruins, the director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park seeks signs of profound religious and cultural transformation to come. 

Recent excavations in Pompeii have unearthed stunning discoveries and a new understanding of how people really lived, revealing a city simmering with tension in an age of great upheaval. From the author of The Buried City comes a riveting account of religious and ritual engagement in and around Pompeii at the time of its destruction in 79 CE, a moment when Christianity was just beginning to gain footing in the Roman world.

Drawing on ancient artifacts and the latest findings from Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, considers how such a momentous transformation might have come to pass. Each chapter takes a different deity as its starting point, exploring the place of the ancient gods in the life of the city and its people. Inviting readers behind the scenes to experience discoveries through the eyes of the excavation team, Zuchtriegel shares insights about Pompeii’s red-light district, where archaeologists have found graffiti that may refer to Christians; excavations in several of the city’s sanctuaries and in nearby Longola, a Bronze and Early Iron Age precursor of Pompeii; a top-secret dig in the House of the Thiasus that has yielded wall paintings as provocative as those of the famous Villa of the Mysteries; and much more. With intimate detail, this book brings to life a raw and often brutal society, capturing beauty and humanity in places both expected and surprising.

The director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park offers a vivid view of daily life in the lost city, shares the latest discoveries, and reflects on preserving heritage.
 
In The Buried City, Gabriel Zuchtriegel takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Pompeii and reveals new archaeological finds that are being unearthed at the site’s biggest dig in a generation. As director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Zuchtriegel presents a uniquely intimate perspective on this city that was tragically destroyed and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Among the ruins, we find unmade beds, dishes left drying, and bodies of victims encased in ash, but Zuchtriegel shows that we’ve only begun to understand this fascinating place, as a third of the site remains unexcavated.
 
Zuchtriegel leads us into the heart of the city, reconstructing Pompeii as it would have been, showing us who lived there, what mattered to them, and what happened in their final hours. The Buried City reveals the latest discoveries unearthed at Pompeii—including a banquet hall with murals of Greek gods, a fresco of what appears to be a pizza, and the remains of individuals crushed by debris—all buried for almost two thousand years. Zuchtriegel offers a vivid portrait of this World Heritage site as a vibrant and diverse city, connecting us to a past that is much closer than we think and inviting us to reflect on our role as keepers of the site and its history.
 

This is an auto-narrated audiobook version of this book.

The director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park offers a vivid view of daily life in the lost city, shares the latest discoveries, and reflects on preserving heritage.
 
In The Buried City, Gabriel Zuchtriegel takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Pompeii and reveals new archaeological finds that are being unearthed at the site’s biggest dig in a generation. As director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Zuchtriegel presents a uniquely intimate perspective on this city that was tragically destroyed and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Among the ruins, we find unmade beds, dishes left drying, and bodies of victims encased in ash, but Zuchtriegel shows that we’ve only begun to understand this fascinating place, as a third of the site remains unexcavated.
 
Zuchtriegel leads us into the heart of the city, reconstructing Pompeii as it would have been, showing us who lived there, what mattered to them, and what happened in their final hours. The Buried City reveals the latest discoveries unearthed at Pompeii—including a banquet hall with murals of Greek gods, a fresco of what appears to be a pizza, and the remains of individuals crushed by debris—all buried for almost two thousand years. Zuchtriegel offers a vivid portrait of this World Heritage site as a vibrant and diverse city, connecting us to a past that is much closer than we think and inviting us to reflect on our role as keepers of the site and its history.