Longest continually excavated archaeological site

The Roman city of Pompeii, located south of Naples in Italy, was buried under 4–6 m (13–20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. For several centuries, the city lay undisturbed and forgotten, though a few artefacts and structures began to be unearthed in the 16th and 17th centuries. As early as 1699, an archaeological investigator named Giuseppe Macrini declared the site to be the ancient city of Pompeii, but he was largely ignored. However in 1748 a full-scale excavation began in earnest under the auspices of Bourbon King Charles III of Spain (reign 1759–88) who commandeered many artefacts for his personal collection. The identity of the city was formally confirmed in 1763 with the revelation of inscriptions that read “res publica Pompeianorum” ("state of the Pompeians”). The project has been ongoing to some degree ever since.

Pompeii was not the only city affected by the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius – others hit were Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae as well as many other smaller settlements.

Archaeological excavations actually began earlier at Herculaneum, with a wall uncovered during the digging of a well in 1709 and an official dig commencing in October 1738 under the supervision of Spanish military engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. However, excavation work at this site, which is more difficult due to be blanketed by a thicker and now-concrete-hard layer of volcanic mud, has been more sporadic than at Pompeii where conditions were more favourable.

One of the first major discoveries at Pompeii was made by Domenico Fontana in the 1500s; he almost discovered the city’s amphitheatres while working on the construction of an aqueduct.

The year 1861, proceeding the Unification of Italy, marked a turning point in the archaeological work at Pompeii under the directorship of Giuseppe Fiorelli, who took a lot more systematic approach to excavations, maintained better records and also pushed for more artefacts to be kept in situ rather than risk damage of extraction.

In recent years, the focus has shifted from new excavations to preserving the buildings which are already exposed.