On August 24th 79 A.D. a historic event took place. The Vesuvius volcano in Italy erupted and covered the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii which are located by the Bay of Naples. Between 60 to 100 feet of volcanic ash covered the cities until Herculaneum was rediscovered by accident in the 1720's. At this time people believed that they had discovered an ancient temple of some sort. The King of Two Sicilies, Charles of Bourbon, purchased a small estate in the Bay of Naples because of stories that the estate had some kind of 'great well' where old statues made by the Romans had been discovered in the past.
In 1738 Charles of Bourban had his antiquarian Marcello Venuti look deeper into these wells and shafts and also had him dig them up and uncover them. Venuti quickly discovered that he had found an old Roman theatre, which was verified by Roman inscriptions located on the walls. He also discovered the name of the city at this time, Herculaneum, was obviously named after Hercules.
Marcello had two other brothers named Ridolfino and Filippo Venuti. In 1727 the three of them founded the Accademia Etrusca. The Etruscan Academy is a museum today which has pieces on display from ancient Egypt and from the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilization in Italy. Thirteen years after Herculaneum was discovered, Venuti discovered the other nearby city of Pompeii . Up until this time archeology wasn't clearly a scientific study. Although there was interest before this time, most excavations were basically done for some kind of religious crusade or treasure hunting. These discoveries more or less depict the birth of archeology simply because they show remains of past life and a civilization of our ancestors can be found if we look hard enough for them. Venuti gave archeology the kick in the butt that it needed to get things going for the rest of time.
Great Excavations: Stone & Bones http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/great_excavations/
The History of Archeology, Part 1, The Treasure Hunters http://archaeology.about.com/science/archaeology/library/weekly/aa113097.htm
The Museum of the Etruscan Academy http://www.accademia-etrusca.net/
Britannica Encyclopedia http://www.britannica.com/
Written by Casey Boone