Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Christian Sager here. Archaeologists recently discovered more than fifty acres
Speaker 1: or twenty hectares of Roman ruins off the coast of
Speaker 1: northeastern Tunisia. That's a small country on the northern tip
Speaker 1: of Africa and situated on the Mediterranean Sea. The discovery
Speaker 1: has researchers believing they may have finally found some convincing
Speaker 1: evidence that the city of Neopolis, not to be confused
Speaker 1: with the Italian city of the same name, that Neopolis
Speaker 1: was wiped out by a natural disaster about a thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty years ago. In addition to streets
Speaker 1: and monuments, researchers found about one hundred tanks that would
Speaker 1: have been used to produce a garam that's a fish
Speaker 1: based fermented condiment commonly consumed in ancient Rome. In an email,
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works spoke to Carlos nor Ania, Associate professor
Speaker 1: of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He says
Speaker 1: that the discovery is important because it lends support to
Speaker 1: the theory that Tunisia Neopolis was submerged by a tsunami
Speaker 1: in the fourth century A d that's a useful reminder
Speaker 1: that environmental catastrophe is not only a phenomenon of the
Speaker 1: modern world. Scientists wrote in a study in the journal
Speaker 1: Nature that a tsunami was caused by an earthquake that
Speaker 1: occurred in three sixty five c e in Crete. There's
Speaker 1: no surefire way to know the extent of the quake,
Speaker 1: since measuring tools didn't exist at the time, but scientists
Speaker 1: believe two separate tremors happened in succession, and the larger
Speaker 1: one had a magnitude of eight point o on the
Speaker 1: Richter scale. The resulting tsunami destroyed about fifty thousand homes
Speaker 1: and killed approximately five thousand people in the city of Alexandria, Egypt.
Speaker 1: And because the geological fault at the center of the
Speaker 1: earthquake was located off the coast of Crete, that Greek
Speaker 1: island was actually lifted up in certain areas by as
Speaker 1: much as thirty three feet or ten meters. Historian Omnianus
Speaker 1: Marcellinus recorded the event, and the newly found ruins reveal
Speaker 1: that there's much more to the story. Norina says the
Speaker 1: discovery also illuminates the economy of Roman North Africa and
Speaker 1: provides further evidence for the popularity of garum in the
Speaker 1: Roman diet. The detail is significant. Garam was a big
Speaker 1: deal throughout the Roman Empire, and as Italian archaeologist Claudio
Speaker 1: Giardino has told NPR, it played a major role in
Speaker 1: the society's economy. He says that according to the Roman writers,
Speaker 1: a good bottle of gerum could cost something like five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars today, but that they also had garam for
Speaker 1: slaves that was extremely cheap, so it is operable to
Speaker 1: a modern amenity like wine, for instance. The underwater findings
Speaker 1: of Neopolis and its abundant manufacturing materials indicate that the
Speaker 1: city was a major historical hub. Neopolis, which means new
Speaker 1: city in Greek, was originally founded in the fifth century
Speaker 1: b c e. And various warring territories claimed ownership of
Speaker 1: it throughout its history. Experts believe that because the city
Speaker 1: failed to pledge allegiance to the Romans, there are very
Speaker 1: few written records documenting the details of life there. That
Speaker 1: means the new discovery is that much more important to
Speaker 1: understanding the full history of the era. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Konstantinovski and produced by Tristan McNeil. For
Speaker 1: more on this and other topics, please visit us at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.