Pompeii still has many secrets to uncover—but should we keep digging?

    In the last year alone, excavations in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a 2,000-year-old laundromat, a bedroom used by slaves, and a fresco _________ an ancestor of pizza. None of those discoveries, however, stemmed from new digs into the 20-foot layer of ash that encased the city after Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in A.D. 79.

    Pompeii, of course, still has more secrets to reveal. Estimates vary but anywhere between 15 to 25% of the city remains covered. For many archaeologists though, the question isn’t so much what they have left to find—but should they continue digging at all?

    For decades, the Italian government had a moratorium on any new excavations in Pompeii. That means most of the finds are byproducts of efforts to preserve and restore what’s already been unearthed, according to Steven Ellis, a professor of Roman archaeology at the University of Cincinnati who worked on excavating Pompeii’s Porta Sabia _______________. “We have enough of [excavated] Pompeii for the general public. We have enough of Pompeii for the scholarly community to learn from,” Ellis said. “What we really need to be doing is keeping it as well preserved for the future as we __________ can.” Going back over those unearthed areas with new and better technology could yield just as exciting discoveries as digging up new sites without putting the city—and future generations’ ability to see it—at risk, Ellis adds.

(Source: National Geographic — adaptation.)