This landmark series follows the most extensive archaeological excavation in Pompeii for a generation. Nearly two years in the making, with exclusive access to the dig and the all-Italian team of archaeologists, the series follows the excavation of an entire city block, Insula 10, in the north of the city.

Told through the drama of the dig, the stunning discoveries and stylized fresco-inspired animations, which imagine what life was like in Pompeii before the eruption and the horror faced by the residents as Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.

The excavation aims to unearth the buildings, their purpose, who lived there, and what happened to them during the eruption. From the bodies of victims, workers’ tools, a commercial bakery, and upscale laundry to charcoal drawings of gladiators and a 2000-year-old fresco of a pizza, no one could have predicted what they would find.

Alongside the present tense story of the dig, the series investigates the timeline of the eruption. From the violent earthquakes that shook the city in the years before the eruption to the day of the disaster, Vesuvius first slowly buries Pompeii and then delivers the killer blows in the form of pyroclastic flows. Artifacts and evidence found at the dig site, reveal what Pompeiians were doing in the final hours of the city as they turned to their gods for salvation.