The largest dig in a lifetime is under way in Pompeii

Staff | The Economist | 14th August 2025

New funding has accelerated excavation at Pompeii, with “breathtaking” results. Luxury and slave lifestyles played out side by side, shown most recently in a spectacular bathhouse. Art gives these ruins a very human feel. Some almost pristine frescoes feature narrative designs that variously portray religious subjects, sex and heroic deeds. One room has frescoes that tell a familiar story – the “tension” between an imagined idyllic past and the realities of contemporary life. Says the writer, “same old humanity”.