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Pompeii was the Roman resort town that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, which happened so suddenly that people were frozen in their tracks, turned into statues of ash. Now a previously unknown Pompeii-type site has been discovered in Indonesia. This eruption took place about 2,000 years later than Pompeii. Scientists are worried that it could happen again.

Justin Huggler writes in the Independent that the lost Indonesian city on the island of Sumbaw was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Archeologists have found the remains of a thatched hut with the carbonized bodies of two people inside, but they think that at least 10,000 people were killed.
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We are fighting the war in Iraq in the area where some the world’s earliest civilizations began. Now archeologists have discovered the remains of a sophisticated city on the border between Syria and Iraq that is over 5,000 years old, much older than any similar metropolis in any other part of the world.

James Janega writes in the Chicago Tribune that this city shows signs of having been destroyed in a huge battle many years ago, although there is no historical record of this. One reason for this could have been that the war sent the left so few survivors that the population was, in effect, propelled technologically backwards many hundreds of years.
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National Geographic Magazine will sponsor another underwater exploration of the sunken city off the Coast of Cuba this fall. Russian-Canadian oceanographer Pauline Zelitsky will head the expedition. Political differences prevent the US from participating, and much of the work has been done by France and Russia. So far, the exploration has been done by remote-controlled mini submarines, armed with video cameras. Their provocative images have shown what look like stepped pyramids, extending as far as South America (where these types of pyramids were built by the Mayans).
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Marine archaeologist Corey Malcom has found pine cones, tree branches and charred limbs off Key West that are about 8,400 years old. This is especially important because previous estimates suggested that sea levels had risen far less than this in the past 8,400 years, meaning there might be more extensive human remains underwater worldwide than has been previously thought.
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