The Roman city of Herculaneum, destroyed and buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, was reported in the chronicles of history in the eighteenth century thanks to Bourbon explorations.
Provided with modest walls, the inhabited center was built on a volcanic plateau overlooking the sea at the foot of Vesuvius, limited on the eastern side and on the western side by two streams; two river inlets were natural and safe landing places. The size of the city was actually rather modest: it was assumed that the total area enclosed by the walls was about 20 hectares, of which about 4.5 hectares are now visible in the open, for a population of about 4000 inhabitants.
Despite the centuries-old history, therefore, excavations have unearthed only a part of the ancient city, so that much of the ancient Herculaneum still remains buried under the ground, guarding inter alia the entire forensic area, the sacred and civil buildings with their precious furnishings and decorations.
Currently most of the archaeological park that can be visited consists, with the exception of the baths and the gym, of private dwellings of the imperial age, characterized by a great typological variety: houses with traditional layout, multi-family blocks of flats, large residences that develop part of their neighborhoods in dominant position on the sea and at the turn of the walls.
Despite the limits of extension of the city brought to light, it seems that the urban layout was articulated on at least three decumans (only two excavated in the open: the lower decuman and the maximum one, partly pedestrianized with the four-sided arch to the west and the 'access to the temple of the Magna Mater in the East) intersected by five hinges (of which only three are open to the sky), perpendicular to the decumani and the coastline. Even the southern limit of the city is sufficiently known, with its powerful vaulted substructures (archways), the overlying terraces with suburban spas and the large private domus, articulated even on several levels. Dionysius of Halicarnassus attributes the mythical foundation of the city to Heracles returning from Iberia, while Strabo reports that the city was first in the hands of the Opici-Osci, then to the Etruscans and the Pelasgians and finally to the Samnites.
Like Pompeii and Stabiae, Herculaneum was also part of the orbit of the Neapolitan confederation. Rebelled in Rome during the Social War, it was attacked and conquered in 89 BC from the legacy of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Titus Didius, and was therefore affected by the process of municipalization conducted by the Romans that invested all of central-southern Italy.
The life of the city was finally abruptly interrupted by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD
Over time, the memory of the location of the ancient Roman city was lost, and only in 1710 a farmer, Ambrogio Nucerino, digging a well to irrigate his garden, recovered many valuable marble fragments, which only later became part of the theater of the ancient city. Informed of the discovery, the noble Emanuel-Maurice of Lorraine, prince of Elboeuf, bought the well and for nine months he led excavations in the area for burrows at his own expense, thanks to which he recovered nine statues with which he honored the powerful of the time. But only in 1738, at the behest of King Charles III of Bourbon, systematic explorations began for tunnels of the ancient site.
In 1828, under the reign of Francesco I di Borbone, open-air excavations were carried out for the first time until 1875. After a very long interruption, the works were resumed in 1927 by Amedeo Maiuri, who led them until 1958 , but already in 1942 almost all the area that constitutes the current archaeological park had been brought to light and at the same time restored and covered.
Between 1960 and 1969 further work was carried out in the northern sector of Insula VI and along the decuman maxim, while in the last twenty years the ancient beach was explored, coinciding with the southernmost band of the archaeological area. In this area, twelve rooms have been brought to light with arched entry (the arches), shelters for boats and warehouses, where many Ercolanesi who had fled from the eruption had sought shelter.
In the years 1996-1998 the open-air excavations were carried out in the area conventionally called "New Excavations", connected to the archaeological park properly so called through a narrow and deep trench that, grafting itself to the height of the House of Aristide, continues with a tunnel below the modern Vico Mare. In this area, where new excavation, restoration and enhancement works were carried out by the Superintendency in the years 2007-2009 thanks to funding from the European Community, structures belonging to the Villa dei Papiri (atrium, first lower floor and terrace overlooking the sea), already explored for underground tunnels in the eighteenth century, but also part of a thermal complex of the north-western Insula and a luxurious residential building of the Insula I.
None of these sites could be brought to light in its entirety, as the structures mostly grow below land that has not been expropriated. A water pump system, in fact, must permanently keep the water surface under control due to the sinking of the ancient shoreline following the eruption of 79 AD and the phenomena related to it.
The reopening of the Decumano Massimo - the main street of the ancient city of Herculaneum - marks the final passage of the redelivery of Roman roads to visitors and concludes an important chapter relating to the works carried out which involved the shops along the northern slope and some of the most interesting Roman dwellings of the archaeological site, including the Casa del Doppio Portale, now finally accessible in all its splendor with its exceptional entrance, the portico with columns and the still intact wooden elements, while important restoration interventions are underway in the famous Casa of the Bicentenary. Additional extraordinary maintenance works are also underway at the infrastructural and conservative restoration facilities of the buildings of the ancient city, as well as archaeological research in the framework of the inter-institutional project Herculaneum Conservation Project, conducted thanks to the co-financing of the Packard Humanities Institute, in collaboration with the British School at Rome and other Italian and foreign universities.
