In the year 79, Mount Vesuvius spewed scalding ash and lava across Pompeii and Herculaneum. As a pyroclastic flow surged, Pompeii was famously laid to ruin—its inhabitants killed, its homes and public spaces obscured under a terrible blanket. The city was snuffed out so speedily that many aspects of daily life were eerily preserved—a carbonized loaf of bread, delicate amulets and beads in a wooden box, even, scientists suspect, brain cells. Over decades of careful excavation, archaeologists have revealed dazzling insights into the city, attracting millions of tourists. And all…
