Heavens11
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By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
Feb. 28, 2006 — A Pompeii of the East has emerged from 10 feet of pumice and ash on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, according to a U.S. volcanologist who has discovered what appear to be the remnants of the lost kingdom of Tambora.
Wiped out in 1815 by the largest volcanic eruption in human history, the tiny kingdom is known only from a few reports from the Dutch and British colonial governments that ruled the East Indies in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
"It's a remote island with very little access, so it has been little studied over the years," said Haraldur Sigurdsson, professor of volcanology at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.
Like Pompeii, frozen in time by Mount Vesuvius's eruption in Italy in 79 A.D., the kingdom of Tambora has been lying undisturbed under volcanic debris and ash for centuries.
"All the people, their houses and culture are still encapsulated there as they were in 1815," Sigurdsson said.
Sigurdsson and colleagues from the University of North Carolina and the Indonesian Directorate of Volcanology first found pottery shards and carbonized wood.
Using radar, the scientists then unearthed a small house buried deep beneath a layer of ash. Along with the house, there were the remains of two adults as well as bronze bowls, ceramic pots, iron tools and other artifacts.
In repose for thousands of years, Mount Tambora began its devastating eruption on April 5, 1815 with a large explosion. After a five-day rest, the volcano erupted again at 7:00 p.m. on April 10.
"This was a huge explosive eruption, and at 10:00 p.m. it produced deadly pyroclastic flows. These ground-hugging clouds of ash and pumice poured down the slopes at more than 100 miles an hour and at temperatures of over 1,000 degrees F. They spread all over the volcano and killed everyone in their path," Sigurdsson told Discovery News.
During the eruption, Mount Tambora ejected up to 100 cubic kilometers of magma and pulverized rock, spewing ash and 400 million tons of sulfurous gases 44 kilometers into the atmosphere.
The gases that lingered in the atmosphere caused a year of global cooling in 1816 that is now known as "the year without a summer." The dramatic climate change caused disease epidemics and worldwide food shortages due to crop failures.
Overall, the eruption killed 117,000 Tamborans, leaving only 4 survivors, who escaped the pyroclastic flows on a tall rocky hill.
"Tamborans would have been subject to a very rapidly moving ash and pumice gas cloud that would have knocked them over in a blast and burnt them with very high temperatures. They would have died very quickly — staying alive only about as long as you can hold your breath," Sigurdsson said.
Further excavation — detailed radar surveys of the site are planned for next year — might yield a treasure trove of artifacts.
According to Sigurdsson, Tamborans were wealthy traders, known for horse breeding, honey and sappan wood, used to produce red dyes.
Decoration on the newly discovered artifacts suggests that their culture was linked to Vietnam and Cambodia. The kingdom also had a distinct language, related to that of the Mon-Khmer group of languages that are now scattered across Southeast Asia.
Historical accounts reveal that in the 18th century, the Rajah (King) of Tambora was put in chains by the Dutch for plotting to overtake the Kingdom of Dompo in Indonesia and for arranging the murder of the Queen of Dompo. The Rajah was then exiled to the Dutch colony in Cape Town, South Africa, where he died.
"Somewhere, beneath the ash and pumice of Tambora Town, there is the ruins of the royal palace. That may contain valuables belonging to the King and his court," Sigurdsson said.
According to Steve Carey, professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, the discovery is important because "it provides a unique opportunity to study the effects of this very large explosive eruption on the people who lived close to the volcano."
Carey, who was not part of the recent Tambora expedition but has been studying the island for years, said that the eruption of Tambora in 1815 has many similarities to the Vesuvius eruption of 79 A.D.
"The people in Pompeii and Herculaneum were killed by the same type of process that claimed the lives of the people living on the slopes of Tambora volcano. The main difference is that the eruption of Tambora was a much bigger eruption than Vesuvius," Carey told Discovery News.
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03-01-2006 06:43 PM
I personally don't think they'll find any jewels, but there'll definitely be artifacts of some description. Hope we hear more in the weeks/months to come.
