The late-antique eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 472 and its impact from the Bay of Naples to Aeclanum

Abstract

The eruption of A.D. 79 has long dominated archaeological discourse on Vesuvius. Other eruptions, both earlier and later, have received less attention but are no less valuable from an archaeological point of view.1 Those eruptions deposited distinctive volcanic materials often easily identifiable in the stratigraphic record, thereby providing dated termini ante quos, which can in turn offer a snapshot of life around the volcano in different periods. The eruption of A.D. 79 provides just such an horizon for 1st-c. A.D. Campania; the earlier ‘Avellino pumices eruption’ does the same for the Bronze Age.2 By tracking the volcanic deposits that can be tied to such events, the situation on the ground prior to the eruptions can be examined, as can the ways in which communities and landscapes reacted to, and recovered from, them.