 The earliest excavations of the Roman towns in Campania - destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in 79 A.D. - are highlighted by the excavations between 1750 and 1764 and the work of Weber.He was a Swiss military engineer charged with the supervision of the excavations during the period by Roceque Joaquin de Alcubierre, chief director of the royal excavations from 1738 until his death in 1780.