National Geographic Live: The Ghosts of Pompeii

With Caitie Barrett | Archaeologist

Even thousands of years after its demise, the Roman Empire captivates us, and the ancient city of Pompeii is the place to understand it all. Volcanic ash created an unparalleled glimpse into the lives of ancient people who lived, worked, and played in this coastal city. We go on assignment with archaeologist Caitie Barrett to the latest dig sites to uncover new stories that still lie buried in this special place.

Caitie Barrett is an archaeologist who studies everyday life and cross-cultural interactions in the ancient Mediterranean. She teaches at Cornell University as Associate Professor of Classics. She also co-directs an archaeological excavation at Pompeii: the Casa della Regina Carolina (CRC) Project, which explores the ways that Roman houses shaped their inhabitants’ lived experiences. Her areas of specialization include Mediterranean and Egyptian archaeology, household archaeology, the archaeology of religion and ritual, and interactions between Egypt and the Greco-Roman world in antiquity. In addition to her current fieldwork at Pompeii, she has also excavated and surveyed a range of Bronze Age through early modern sites in Egypt, Greece, and the United States.