territory. The Russians forced the Pomo
to hunt sea animals and give them the
animals’ furs.
A few years later Spanish priests built a
mission in the area. They got some
Pomo to live and work at the mission.
The Spanish often treated the Pomo
harshly. In addition, many Pomo died
from smallpox and other diseases
brought by the Spanish.
Gold was discovered in California in
1848. Thousands of U.S. settlers rushed
to the area, taking Pomo lands. The settlers
killed many Pomo. They forced
other Pomo to work in mines as slaves.
At the end of the 20th century there
were about 5,000 Pomo living in the
United States.
#More to explore
Missions, Spanish • Native Americans
Pompeii
Pompeii was an ancient city in southern
Italy. In AD 79 a volcano called Mount
Vesuvius erupted close by. Thousands of
people died, and the city was buried.
Archaeologists later cleared away much
of the rubble. They uncovered ruins that
gave historians a look at life in the
Roman Empire.
The Ancient City
People lived in the Pompeii region in
prehistoric times. The Romans took
control of Pompeii in about 290 BC.
An old photograph shows a
Pomo woman gathering seeds
into a basket.
120 Pomo BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
They brought Roman architecture and
culture to the city.
Mount Vesuvius began to erupt on
August 24, AD 79. The eruption lasted
for several days. Poison gases from Vesuvius
choked many people. Then volcanic
stones and ashes covered the city. When
the eruption ended, Pompeii was buried
to a depth of 19 to 23 feet (6 to 7
meters).
The Archaeological Site
The debris protected Pompeii from vandals
and the weather for hundreds of
years. An Italian architect discovered the
ruins in the late 1500s. Archaeologists
began excavating, or digging out, the
city in 1748. The work at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, another city buried by
Vesuvius, marked the start of modern
archaeology.
The early excavations were not well
organized. Many early diggers were
interested only in finding treasure. After
1860, however, archaeologists made sure
that the work was done in an orderly
way. By the 1990s about two thirds of
the city had been excavated.
Historians have learned a lot about the
Roman world from the excavations.
They can walk down streets and look at
temples, public baths, houses, and
shops. The digging uncovered charred
nuts and fruits in market stalls and
loaves of bread in bakeries. Historians
have also learned about life in Pompeii
from statues and pictures.
#More to explore
Archaeology • Rome, Ancient
• Vesuvius, Mount
Ponca
The Ponca are Native Americans of
Oklahoma and Nebraska. They once
lived along the coast of the Atlantic
Ocean, but they later moved west.
The Ponca lived in earth-covered lodges.
They fished, hunted, and gathered wild
plants for food. In spring and autumn
they lived in portable tepees while hunting
bison (buffalo).
By the late 1600s the Ponca were living
in what is now Minnesota.Warfare with
the Sioux people forced the Ponca to
move even farther west. They settled in
southwestern Minnesota and the Black
Hills of South Dakota.
The ancient
city of Stabiae
was also
destroyed by
the eruption of
Mount
Vesuvius.
Many of the buildings that were excavated
in Pompeii are now open to the public. On
display in one room is a plaster cast of one
of the people who died in the city. The
people who excavated Pompeii discovered
that the ashes that covered the city made
molds of some of the people who died
there. Scientists later made models from
those molds.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Ponca 121
By the early 1800s diseases brought by
white settlers had reduced the tribe from
about 800 people to about 200. In 1877
the U.S. government forced the Ponca
to move to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
Some Ponca left Indian Territory
and traveled north on foot for 600 miles
(965 kilometers) to eastern Nebraska.
The Ponca who settled in Nebraska
became known as the Northern Ponca.
The Ponca who stayed in Indian Territory
became known as the Southern
Ponca. By the late 20th century the
number of Ponca had grown to more
than 3,000.
#More to explore
Kaw • Native Americans • Omaha
• Osage • Quapaw
Ponce de Leon,
Juan
Juan Ponce de Leon was an early Spanish
explorer of the Americas. He was the
first European to visit Florida. He is also
famous for his search for the legendary
Fountain of Youth.
Ponce de Leon was born in 1460 in the
Spanish province of Leon. He may have
sailed to the Americas with Christopher
Columbus in 1493. In 1502 he helped
to conquer the island of Hispaniola, in
the Caribbean Sea. In 1508 he founded
Puerto Rico’s earliest European settlement.
In 1509 he became governor of
the island.
While in Puerto Rico, Ponce de Leon
heard about an island where a spring
flowed with water that kept people
young. In March 1513 he went looking
Standing Bear was a Ponca chief. In 1879
he went to court to challenge the U.S. government’s
treatment of his people. The court
ruled in his favor. The case was very important
to the cause of Native American rights.
Juan Ponce de Leon
122 Ponce de Leon, Juan BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
for the island. He landed on the mainland
of North America, though he
