Pompeii and Vesuvius: On what day did Vesuvius bury Pompeii?

Why this question matters

Pompeii is often called a city frozen in time, yet even the day it was buried is a question of evidence. The traditional date comes from copies of a letter written about 27 years later. A charcoal inscription found in 2018 points to autumn instead. This case is about what to do when a written source and a find from the ground disagree.

The evidence

The exhibits you examine in this case, labelled by the kind of evidence each one is.

• Written laterWritten about AD 106–107

  Pliny the Younger's letters

  Letters 6.16 and 6.20, to the historian Tacitus

  Pliny watched the eruption from across the bay as a teenager and described it about 25 years later, including his uncle's death and a cloud shaped like an umbrella pine. The originals are lost. In the medieval hand-copied manuscripts the date is mostly read as 24 August, but the copies disagree.

• Made at the timeFound in 2018

  The charcoal note

  A house under repair, Regio V, Pompeii

  A quick note written in charcoal gives the date as the 16th day before the Kalends of November, which is 17 October. It gives no year. Charcoal smudges easily, so the excavators argue it was written shortly before the eruption.

• Scientific findingExcavation finds

  Autumn clues

  Pompeii and Herculaneum

  Excavators have reported remains of autumn fruit such as pomegranates, and wine jars that seem to have been sealed after the grape harvest. Each clue alone can be explained in other ways.

How the investigation works

After the briefing and exhibits, you complete three steps. Every answer is explained, and the verdict lists the sources.

1. 1

   Chronology

   Put the events back in order, oldest first. BC and AD are handled correctly, and there is no year zero.

2. 2

   Source comparison

   Two sources, several statements. Decide which source supports each one, or whether neither does.

3. 3

   Supported conclusions

   Sort claims into supported, going beyond the evidence, or contradicted. Every answer explains why.

Sources

• Pompeii Archaeological Park
• Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16 and 6.20 (Project Gutenberg)

Case content last checked 2026-10-13. Not reviewed by an independent historian. Found an error? Tell us.