The Buried City

’[Gabriel] has written an essential read for anyone interested in this extraordinary place - or indeed anyone interested in running an organisation with baggage. He has a light touch, yet is philosophically challenging.’ * TELEGRAPH *‘A fascinating new book about what we are still learning about this most haunting of all lost cities… the discoveries will continue for many years yet. And they can be as deeply moving as any film or novel.’ – Christopher Hart * MAIL ON SUNDAY *‘This is not just the best book on Pompeii I’ve ever read - it’s the best book on the glorious realities of archaeology itself. Gabriel Zuchtriegel will surely inspire a whole new generation in the field with his blend of knowledge, experience and boundless passion. It has left me panting to revisit Pompeii with the new, excited eyes that this magnificent book has given me.’ – STEPHEN FRY‘Zuchtriegel makes the familiar magical. He challenges us to transform our relationship with the past, and shows us a new, far more satisfying, way to think about Pompeii and its people.’ – DAN SNOWA brilliant account of the latest discoveries at Pompeii and a deeply personal celebration of the inherent fascination of antiquity. – TOM HOLLAND, author of PAX and DOMINIONFantastic! Hugely informative, clever, thoughtful and playful – NATALIE HAYNES, author of DIVINE MIGHT and PANDORA’S JARIn The Buried City, the director of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, reveals the latest archaeological finds to show what life was like in AD79 before Vesuvius erupted…What is special about Pompeii, Zuchtriegel says, is not its temples or theatres but its workshops, taverns, baths and bordellos, the unmade beds and uneaten meals, the lives, high and low, interrupted suddenly when the mountain exploded. All human life is there… Zuchtriegel speaks up for the under-privileged, including today… fascinating and well argued. * THE TIMES *The everyday is his highest art. This book has an honestly expressed aim to encourage readers to bring their whole selves into their thinking about Pompeii… There is much charming chatter in The Buried City as well as learned disquisition, always lightly delivered, and a powerful sense of a man grappling with what we can take from antiquity. * TLS *A thoughtful, revelatory and above all deeply human account of life - and death - by the director of the most awe-inspiring archaeological site on the planet. Zuchtriegel describes the realities of his profession with such honesty and verve. – DAISY DUNN, author of IN THE SHADOW OF VESUVIUS: A LIFE OF PLINYAn exceptionally moving and thought provoking book, it reads as a conversation with the past, and leads you to reflect on how that conversation changes with each generation. The Buried City is a deeply moving examination of the lives of ordinary people in Pompeii through the extraordinary objects discovered there, it is also a beautiful reflection on what Pompeii can tell us about ourselves. – ELODIE HARPER, author of the WOLF DEN trilogyA brilliant book. A learned guide to life in Pompeii… deftly weaving the ancient with the modern. Fascinating, affable and constantly illuminating. – Emma Southon, author of A FATAL THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUMYes, The Buried City is about history: the Romans who lived in Pompeii, how they lived and died, and what archaeological secrets this unique site is still offering up to those willing to keep digging. But it’s also about now. Issues of identity, citizenship, community, belonging are explored through rescued artefacts and ruined buildings. This isn’t a book about antiquity. It’s a book about what our love of antiquity can teach us about ourselves. * New Statesman *‘The city, frozen in time, is still bursting with undiscovered secrets and at the helm of these discoveries is Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archaeological park. This is an unparalleled tour through a city that has fascinated and bewildered us for 2,000 years.’ * Daily Mail, Best Summer Reads *‘This is not just the best book on Pompeii I’ve ever read - it’s the best book on the glorious realities of archaeology itself. Gabriel Zuchtriegel will surely inspire a whole new generation in the field with his blend of knowledge, experience and boundless passion. For this reader … well, it has left me panting to revisit Pompeii with the new, excited eyes that this magnificent book has given me.’ – Stephen Fry‘Zuchtriegel makes the familiar magical. He challenges us to transform our relationship with the past, and shows us a new, far more satisfying, way to think about Pompeii and its people.’ – Dan SnowFantastic! Hugely informative, clever, thoughtful and playful (like all my favourite archaeologists). – Natalie Haynes, author of DIVINE MIGHT and PANDORA’S JAR‘A thoughtful, revelatory and above all deeply human account of life - and death - by the director of the most awe-inspiring archaeological site on the planet.’ – Daisy Dunn, author of IN THE SHADOW OF VESUVIUS: A LIFE OF PLINY‘A brilliant book. A learned guide to life in Pompeii both in the Roman past and the twenty-first century, deftly weaving the ancient with the modern, the personal with the historical. The end result is a fascinating, affable and constantly illuminating exploration of Pompeii as an idea and as an archaeological site but also as a home for thousands of Roman people from all walks of life.’ – Emma Southon, author of A FATAL THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

‘Archaeology has never been told so vividly.’

Gabriel Zuchtriegel is Director General of the archaeological park in Pompeii. He studied classical archaeology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and received his PhD from the University of Bonn. In 2015, he became director of the Paestum archaeological park and museum, before being appointed at Pompeii in February 2021. He became an Italian citizen in 2020 and is currently overseeing the biggest dig of the site of Pompeii in a generation.