Scientific analysis vs. written sources?

Question

I'm doing this assingment on what's more reliable the scientific analysis of Mt Vesuvius or the letters of Pliny and all those other letters which were kept?

Also does anyone know a website which may argue one of these points?

thanks.

Answer 1

The USGS is always a good site for volcano information.  You can find lots of info on Vesuvius and on Pliny by doing searches for them.

In law, the court places a lot of emphasis on witnesses, but they also want objective evidence.  I think it's the same with Vulcanologists.  It's great to have the eyewitness testimony of Pliny, but much less was known about volcanoes then and he wasn't a Vulcanologist, so scientific analysis is needed and provides more information.

Answer 2

The analysis.

Pliny would have been the first to say go see.

In fact that is how he died.