About a third of the ancient city has yet to be excavated, however; the consensus among scholars is that this remainder should be left for future archeologists, and their presumably more sophisticated technologies.
Scholarly consensus is that part of the city should stay buried. There are all sorts of concerns about visitors damaging Pompeii. That article is full of them. During World War Two, a group of allied soldiers thought Pompeii was a nazi encampment and shot at it. Nobody wants Pompeii to fall into further ruin.
Sure, leaving the rest to future excavation might make sense… But we already fucked up the portion we dug up… Reburying it will just fuck it up even more.
Will it fuck it up more than, say, acid rain caused by excess CO2 in the atmosphere? Or soldiers in WWIII thinking it’s an enemy camp? Or just regular looters and vandals and tourists?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/29/pompeii-still-has-buried-secrets
Scholarly consensus is that part of the city should stay buried. There are all sorts of concerns about visitors damaging Pompeii. That article is full of them. During World War Two, a group of allied soldiers thought Pompeii was a nazi encampment and shot at it. Nobody wants Pompeii to fall into further ruin.
Sure, leaving the rest to future excavation might make sense… But we already fucked up the portion we dug up… Reburying it will just fuck it up even more.
Will it fuck it up more than, say, acid rain caused by excess CO2 in the atmosphere? Or soldiers in WWIII thinking it’s an enemy camp? Or just regular looters and vandals and tourists?