Timeless Pompeii: Digging into Ancient Rome: Part 4

Pompeii died a horrible death. But Pompeii lives!
It speaks to us through it's architecture and ageless engineering. The colors of it's murals  captivate us 2000 years later. And it's unbelievably beautiful stone work tests our ability to apprehend their skill.

ARCHITECTURE

Much of Pompeii is composed of public spaces and is predominated by forums: this is where Romans come for justice, government and commerce. Here you find markets, basilicas, and temples.
Just like in Rome itself, Pompeii also has it's theaters, baths and brothels (more on that later ;-). Romans are an energetic lot whether they live in Rome itself or any of it's provinces. And at the end of the day, just like you an I, they retreat to the peace of their home.
Romans are famous for their Paristyle gardens and inward looking villas. Calm and serenity issues from this style of home. There are several examples in Pompeii.
Most if not all living spaces possess no windows. Instead the opening of the room faces the inside of the villa, toward the garden. I know what you are thinking "eeewww, dark and gloomy" Ah, not so at all.

PAINTINGS AND MURALS

The finest examples of Roman paintings are found in Pompeii. Don't miss the opportunity to sample the beauty in the various structures! Its difficult to do any justice to them here.

As I mentioned above, the rooms were not dark. The various rooms, especially the entertaining spaces, were decorated with floor to ceiling murals of the most astonishing compositions. And the colors! Vibrant! Powerful! Passionate!
Lighting in a dark room in Roman times is accomplished with candles or oil lamps as you would expect. The flickering light has a completely different effect on the murals than electric light of today. Imagine sitting by a fire and reading a picture book. The flickering light and shadow plays across the page, teasing your perception.
That's how it is in a Roman dinner room or lounge. Odors wafting around and gentle sounds from the garden complete the picture. Drab, gloomy? In our minds maybe but never in a Roman villa....more to come!

Timeless Pompeii: Digging into Ancient Rome: Part 6

Stepping stones and chariot grooves in the road

When I last visited Pompeii I crawled the open areas of the ruins like an aardvark hunting for ants. I was interested in everything from the remains of calcified water dripping over a villa wall to the chariot wheel grooves in the road made over centuries of use. Ok, I geeked out.  Happy now?
You've all seen the astonishing pictures so far. The place was frozen in time for all of us. It's a veritable archeological dig for the uninitiated. You can really get lost in the history and the academia of it all.

If you study history though, you know that it has a way of bringing the humanity back to the forefront in many different ways. By way of example, when they were digging up the garrison area of Hadrian's wall in northern England. They discovered the most mundane artifacts imaginable...and the most heartwarming.

The archeologists found "letters" from home. When the average American gives a passing thought to what a Roman soldier was the first thing that may come to mind is tough, hardy and bloodthirsty (I think soldiers are sometimes confused with gladiators). The letters demonstrated anything but bloodthirstiness.

The letters were mostly from family. They spoke of a families pride or admonished the recipient to keep good spirits and to not let their health go. They even recounted the contents of "care packages" one stating that here were new socks to replace the ones this person usually ran through. If socks with holes can't make the contemporary person to relate to the humans that make up ancient Rome then nothing will.

Beautifully preserved

Unless you visit Pompeii. As I said in an earlier post, Pompeii was buried in a layer of pumice and ash twenty feet deep in places. Over the 17 centuries this layer hardened into a solid mass. The effect o this was of course to provide a blanket that preserved everything: structures, pottery, tools, artwork...and bodies.

To be precise, the bodies were not preserved. The image of the body (person) was preserved. When the people (and animals) of Pompeii succumbed to the flash heat, they lay where they died. The layer of ash and pumice built up around them and like the site itself, were persevered for a time.

The human body being obviously much less resilient than the brick of the town itself, it eventually rotted and deteriorated leaving a void or hole in the now solid covering. These voids were found in the process of excavating the site. It was then that some genius came up with the idea of pouring something like Plaster of Paris in to the void! Well, can you blame them? I'd be damn curious too!
What they found was a physical record of agonizing death. The voids were the shape and image of the bodies that were covered in the ash. The most astonishing feature of all of them is the utter humanity of their final moments.

To be sure, the images are not something that would enable you to identify a specific person. The plaster was not capable of that kind of fine detail. Perhaps that is best because the basic images pull at your heart just the same.
The tale that the plaster images tell is as shocking as they are touching. In many instances it was obvious that fathers were protecting mothers and mothers children. In one image you can plainly see the image of a family attempting to protect themselves from the erupting volcano and falling ash.

In certain images the you can plainly see the rictus of pain on the face of what appears to be a male in the throws of death

Poor Little Guy

Strangely, the plaster mold I found the most compelling was that of a pompeian who was caught in his binds during the eruption.  There have always been Pompeian dogs. There are Pompeian dogs today. Knowing them today makes me feel for them then. Its a tough picture.

Timeless Pompeii: Digging into Ancient Rome: Part 5

Anyone up for a bit? What?

This post is dedicated specifically to the brothels of Pompeii. I am a little at a loss to explain the (prurient?) interest in the subject. To me it seems that the Roman's had a more grounded understanding of sex. To them it was just sex. Certainly a way to let off steam, a way to keep the masses "relaxed" and most certainly keep the soldiers of the legion a little less rambunctious.

The Roman's were likewise much less inhibited about the biological process. There were signs like this posted in all areas where the services of the brothel could be...acquired. I remember this painting and others that left people speechless when they first laid eyes on it. I think as a nation we have always been a bit sexually impaired.

Its funny how we left Europe to escape oppression and intolerance but when we stumble into something like this we turn all puritanical! To this day Americans are beset with a host of idiosyncratic behaviors that Europe has mostly cast off. While Europe has embraced nudity and sex, Americans are encumbered by the sexual mores of the old English Puritans and the workaholic ethics of  Calvin and Luther.

While the above photo could be shocking to some visitors, the next one was surprising to some for its "celebration" of manhood. Yes, that's a pair of scales with which the man is weighing himself. One thing can be grasped with certainty from this picture: in Roman times men were just as preoccupied with their member as they are today, and, of course, just as immature.

Need more counter-weight?

Most of the pictures you have seen here are mine. A very few of them I have pulled off the net. There is a series of 4 or 5 though that I pulled off the net because I am so perplexed by their significance.

The average Roman brothel is a pretty small affair. The Italians were a pretty squat people, bad ass to be sure, but squat. They didn't need allot of room. Rooms and average structures were fairly small. This is a typical room in a brothel. It looks bare but the walls would have been painted, much like the art you see here in other pictures. The Roman equivalent of Playboy magazine.

Could use a duvet

So, here we are, in the room where the deed is done. Naturally we are all curious about how the other half lived or...fornicated. But why on earth would people want to do this then hang it on the Internet with the caption "Cindy in a brothel!!!!"

I suppose there could be some humor in it but why do we immediately think "hey, honey, sit on the bed and let me take your pic!" Haven't we spent centuries proving that this "function" doesn't define a woman's worth.

It seems damned odd to me. But maybe its just me.

We done here?

How Do I Look?

DON"T even. think. it!

Timeless Pompeii: Digging into Ancient Rome: Part 3

City Plan with Excavated Portions Indicated

Walking up the entrance to Pompeii for the first time I thought "Yup, another DEAD archaeological site. Another "rare" opportunity to watch the real time decomposition of brick and mortar! Yay."
I"m such an arrogant shit..and totally wrong as well.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
We all know what happened: big bad volcano go BOOM! and buried little Pompeii. It happened so long ago the best that most of us can manage is a detached clinical review of the subject. But if we try, we can make it a human experience and really feel it inside.
Pompeii was a wealthy city of approximately 10-20,000 souls-mothers, fathers, children. Full of bakers, civil servants, vendors, and businessmen. There were some wealthy people but mostly middle class living their life just like you and I.

The City of Pompeii and Vesuvius Erupting

And in the time it took me to write this sentence they were flash-fried where they stood.  Previously it was believed that inhabitants died from suffocation. After testing remains of bones subjected to heat, scientists conclude that many were killed from intense heat long before they ever suffocated. The air temperature climbed instantly to almost 500 degrees and snuffed out life immediately.
When Mount Vesuvius exploded the ash, gases and lava were thrust left and right of the volcano as viewed from the water. Looking at the two drawings below you can see the "safe" area in front of the volcano. You can also see where Herculaneum and Pompeii where located in the wrong place at the wring time. The bottom rendering is misleading: while the lava flow may not have gone straight down to the sea, the hot gases traveled as far as 16 miles. Nowhere was safe. If a like eruption happened today, 3,000,000 souls in Naples would be at great risk.

Wind, Gas and Lava Direction

Directionality of Gas and Lava Flow

Pompeii was buried in ash and pumice to almost 20 feet deep when Vesuvius" last angry eruption was complete (two days later). Everyone in the immediate area was dead or dying. Many fled by ship but were still overcome. Mothers, infants, dogs...everyone that day was among the helpless. Pompeii was gone.
Pompeii would not be seen again for almost 1700 years...

Timeless Pompeii: Digging into Ancient Rome: Part 2

Pompeii is not simply a classical Roman city.  It isn't just a well preserved ruin. And it certainly isn't a pile of dusty relics interesting only to stuffy academics (but the academics are pretty dusty looking).
Pompeii is a contemporary time machine. Each step you take within the city transports you to a greater and deeper understanding of the period in general and provincial Roman life specifically. It is a laboratory, a cultural mirror by which we can compare ourselves to the residents of Pompeii. They are not unlike us or perhaps we are not unlike them.

Terentius Neo and Wife from Pompeii

Pompeii isn't like any other excavation of antiquity (with the possible exception of Hurculaneum also buried during the eruption of Vesuvius); it was frozen in time. All of its art, architecture, theater, tools, businesses and, eerily, it's inhabitants are still there to see. It's a journey that everyone, YOU especially, need to make. Don't die before you experience it. Bucket list it!
Visiting Pompeii was actually a lark. "What?!" you say "What happened to the surgical strike vacation?!" Look, I said that's the way it should-"SHOULD"- be done. I'm just like every other dumb ass tourist who didn't think far enough ahead to plan-out the whole Pompeii thing.  Back. Off. ;-)

No wonder the streets are close together!

Naples and Vesuvius

After touring Naples (quite possibly the dirtiest city in Italy-it certainly has the most laundry hanging from every possible window and assorted fixture) I got back on the bus and headed down the coast road to Pompeii. When I wasn't cringing in my seat (I'm not sure what was more dangerous the bus driver or the traffic he was navigating-I use that term loosely), I was just staggered by the blue of the Mediterranean. It's an azure blue that I have never seen replicated in other bodies of water.

Anybody Rather Walk?

The drive to Pompeii ordinarily takes 30 minutes but it took me closer to an hour. Its not exactly a US interstate to Pompeii (by that I mean its a suicide road they claim has multiple lanes. All I saw were cars going in every direction while occupying the same space as on-coming traffic!) Honestly, the coast drive was beautiful but I was mostly in awe of the Italian drivers. In the cities it was pure pandemonium.
Each car, Ferrari and otherwise, with what seemed like an inexhaustible passion, was attempting to launch itself around each consecutive bend and then over a cliff...or so it seemed. Driving in Italy you learn that all lanes are for everybody's use regardless of direction of travel; you only need to be in one or the other to avoid untimely death.

But I digress. Hell, its my blog...

Driving Up to Pompeii

Pompeii was originally closer to the sea. This will become clear when you first approach what functions as the current day entrance. The exterior seems somewhat abrupt. While contemporary and Pompeiian Italy meet at a serviceable tourist portal, it's easy to see that the sea was considerably closer than it is today (about 5 miles inland now).
Let's journey inside to Imperial Rome...