[Seated man, two women and two children]

Early c.18th engraving from the series, Antiquities D’Herculanum, illustrating the most beautiful ancient paintings, and marbles, bronzes and furniture found in excavations of Herculaneum, Italy.

Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous as one of the few ancient cities to be preserved nearly intact, as the ash that blanketed the town protected it against looting and the elements. Although less known than Pompeii today, it was the first and, for a long time, the only discovered Vesuvian city (in 1709). Pompeii was revealed in 1748 and identified in 1763. The discovery of the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii gave new impetus to the study of archeology.