Strata: Portraits of Humanity, August 2016 (Reading Herculaneum scrolls; historic British Columbia and Nevada miner)
(1) About 2000 years ago, Mt. Vesuvius in southern Italy exploded, carbonizing a private library in Herculaneum. The papyrus scrolls are extremely fragile and many have been damaged. Using technology similar to a CAT scan, two specialists have been able to look through the scrolls, one page at a time. (2) William Culverville, a British miner in the Cariboo mining district of British Columbia, skedaddled (i.e., escaped debts) to Nevada. While driving a stagecoach, he saw an opportunity to begin a ranch, which later became the city of Caliente, Nevada.