The Discovery and Excavation of Pompeii    [Print whole story]

Giuseppe Fiorelli
By 1860, a new king had come to the throne, Victor Emmanuel II. He appointed Giuseppe Fiorelli to take charge of the excavations at Pompeii. Fiorelli introduced a scientific approach to the excavations. Firstly he cleared away the mounds of waste which were littered around the site of Pompeii and then built roofs over the sites that had been excavated in order to protect them from the sun and rain.


He also introduced a Journal of the Excavations at Pompeii. In this, detailed noted were kept of all the finds - what they looked like and where and how they were found. Fiorelli believed that, as far as possible, items should be left where they were found. This was a very different approach to the earlier archaeologists such as Alcubierre who were interested only in finding treasure.


One of the things that Fiorelli is most famous for is 'Fiorelli's Process'...