The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under feet of ash and pumice. Objects under the volcanic material were found to be well preserved when they were excavated centuries later. Among the artifacts recovered were surgical instruments from multiple sites, the best known being Pompeii's House of the Surgeon, so named because of the nature of the items recovered there. The collection is one of the best surviving examples of the tools at a surgeon's disposal in the 1st century AD. There was little innovation in surgery and surgical tools from the time of Hippocrates (5th century BCE) and Galen (2nd century CE), this collection is typical of surgical practice for nearly a millennium and illuminates the practice of medicine in ancient Rome.