We spent most of this week on a trip to Campania, where we saw Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villa di Poppaea—all sites that were buried during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It's weird to benefit from something that at the time was a terrible tragedy. You can still see plaster casts of many who died in Pompeii, including children and even a dog. Many of the people who witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius did not realize that it would engulf them and everything they knew, so they died at home, trying to hide from a force of nature.
At Herculaneum, we don't have casts of the bodies, but we have skeletons. Pompeii was covered in ash, but Herculaneum was buried beneath pyroclastic flow. Hundreds of people who were trying to hide ended up dying together in the eruption.
But all of that destruction has yielded a goldmine for classicists like me. Because of the volcanic eruption, we have carbonized wood and buildings with extant second floors. Walking through Pompeii is like walking through an actual city instead of a flat ruin where you have to imagine that the walls are taller. And all of the sites we saw this week featured incredible wall paintings. The Villa of the Mysteries was open at Pompeii, and it was stunning.
We also got to see some really cool bath houses, which included locker rooms, cold rooms, and hot rooms where you could get a good steam (although it was so hot out I felt pretty steamy already). The women's bath at Herculaneum had an amazing floor mosaic. Why don't they do bathrooms like this anymore?
Pompeii is also delightful because you can see the wilder parts of life, too. There is a brothel you can walk through that features risqué wall paintings, and there are scandalous street signs that may have, ahem, pointed the way to said brothel. The archaeological museum in Naples even has a "secret chamber" that features all of the completely filthy art they found while excavating Pompeii. If you ever get a chance, you should take a good look and have a good laugh—unless you're one of my students. In that case, there is nothing interesting in there at all.
At Herculaneum, we don't have casts of the bodies, but we have skeletons. Pompeii was covered in ash, but Herculaneum was buried beneath pyroclastic flow. Hundreds of people who were trying to hide ended up dying together in the eruption.
But all of that destruction has yielded a goldmine for classicists like me. Because of the volcanic eruption, we have carbonized wood and buildings with extant second floors. Walking through Pompeii is like walking through an actual city instead of a flat ruin where you have to imagine that the walls are taller. And all of the sites we saw this week featured incredible wall paintings. The Villa of the Mysteries was open at Pompeii, and it was stunning.
We also got to see some really cool bath houses, which included locker rooms, cold rooms, and hot rooms where you could get a good steam (although it was so hot out I felt pretty steamy already). The women's bath at Herculaneum had an amazing floor mosaic. Why don't they do bathrooms like this anymore?
Pompeii is also delightful because you can see the wilder parts of life, too. There is a brothel you can walk through that features risqué wall paintings, and there are scandalous street signs that may have, ahem, pointed the way to said brothel. The archaeological museum in Naples even has a "secret chamber" that features all of the completely filthy art they found while excavating Pompeii. If you ever get a chance, you should take a good look and have a good laugh—unless you're one of my students. In that case, there is nothing interesting in there at all.
1 comment:
Sounds great! I bet you're getting your daily steps in! - Mom
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