Dr. Jessica Venner

They'd even chosen the spot based on the shade a tree would give in the afternoon, you know, as the sun would come round.

And they'd put shards in the top of the wall to stop thieves coming in and stealing their fruit.

And, you know, for someone like me, I'm able to reconstruct what that garden looked like based on the root cavities that were found.

During the eruption process, there's a process where we're able to put plaster of Paris into the root cavities that were left when an organic material decays, exactly like the people are created.

And so you can literally reconstruct where the paths were, where the vines were, where the stakes were, where the trees were.

It's amazing.

Yes, exactly.

I think she estimated that a third of the city was green.

And then I collaborated with a couple of other archaeologists on a map and it pretty much is about a third of it's green, which again, if you look at it now, you think, oh, it's a very grey city.

But no, there would have been birdsong everywhere and there would have been vines crawling over walls.

It would have smelt amazing.

I mean, we had perfume gardens as well.

I just think it's a very different image to what we have of it.

It was very, very much alive.

Oh, I love him, Uxinus.

Yes, Uxinus.

And actually, Jasemski was actually responsible for excavating his property as well as the shophouse garden.

She's my personal hero.

So Uxinus is an innkeeper, and he's one of those rare people, a bit like Aulus and Brickius Scaurus, that we know a huge amount about.

Based on what he left behind in this one place, we know where he lived, we know what his name was, and we know his occupation.