The fragments below are from the map "Regnum Neapolitanum", which appeared in 1570 in the famous Ortelius' atlas "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum". The map shows an existing, "alive" town with the name "Pompeia" near Vesuvius. Where is this town now? What is its present-day name?
A. Tschurilow's article suggests a reasonable hypothesis, which gives answer to these questions.
In the article is discussed the very interesting problem of the dating of the famous Vesuvius' eruption, which covered completely the town of Pompeii by a layer of volcanic ash and pumice-stone. The author conducted extensive studies. He found and analyzed important evidence about the eruption of Vesuvius of 1631 and about the destruction by this eruption of surrounding towns. In particular he studied carefully and analyzed the special features of the Canal of Count Sarno and its environment in Pompeii.
I had the opportunity to follow the process of the research and the creation of the hypothesis, described in the paper. Therefore I am well familiar with the efforts of the author to gather and to generalize the entire accessible essential information on the theme, especially information from the 16th and 17th century documents. This gives to me the merit to assert that the article "Features of the Domenico Fontana's Water Conduit (the Canal of Count Sarno) and the Date of Pompeii Destruction" by Dipl. - Ing. (TU) Andreas Tschurilow presents to the readers a hypothesis, based on authentic evidence and facts: that the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631 is namely that famous eruption, which covered the town of Pompeii by a layer of volcanic ash and pumice-stone. A hypothesis, which should be thoroughly verified in the future.
In accordance with this I would recommend the scientists and people interested in the archaeology of Pompeii, to read the article of Dipl. - Ing. (TU) Andreas Tschurilow "Features of the Domenico Fontana's Water Conduit (the Canal of Count Sarno) and the Date of Pompeii Destruction".
Jordan Tabov, DSc,
Department of Application of Information Technologies in the Humanities,
Institute of Mathematics and Informatics,
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
