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Junior Cycle · Junior Cycle Classics

Junior Cycle Classics: Archaeology and Pompeii

How often Archaeology and Pompeii comes up on the Classics papers, every year it was asked, and questions to try.

CL Asked on 4 of the last 5 Common Level papers, most recently in 2026. most years

Archaeology and Pompeii, Common Level(7 marks)

Quick ones on Archaeology and Pompeii.

(a)Which volcano buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79?
  1. Etna
  2. Vesuvius
  3. Stromboli
(b)Pompeii had many thermopolia: counters with large jars set into them. What were they?
  1. Small public hot baths
  2. Shops selling pottery jars
  3. Street bars for hot food
(c)Why is Pompeii such valuable evidence for daily life in Roman times?
  1. Ash sealed a whole town at one moment
  2. Romans rebuilt it exactly as it was
  3. Its people wrote a full history of it
Show the answers

(a) Vesuvius

(b) Street bars for hot food

(c) Ash sealed a whole town at one moment

Your turn: Common Level questions on Archaeology and Pompeii.

Common Level

Asked on 4 of the last 5 Common Level papers, most recently in 2026. most years

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2026Q5
2025Q4
2024Not asked
2023Q6
2022Q7

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Archaeology and Pompeii questions

Archaeology and Pompeii, 2 marks

Which Roman writer described the eruption of Vesuvius in letters to the historian Tacitus?

  1. Seneca the Younger
  2. Julius Caesar
  3. Pliny the Younger
Show the answer

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger watched from Misenum across the bay; his uncle, Pliny the Elder, died trying to rescue people. The letters are an eyewitness written source.

Other Classics topics

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