A Walk in Herculaneum
On the morning of October 24, 79 AD, a catastrophe occurred. Two vibrant cities in ancient Italy ceased to
be. There has been much discussion as to the “true”
date – August or October. However, a
document was uncovered that showed the date to be in October.
Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried both cities in a matter of
minutes. Pompei was the farther city
from Mt. Vesuvius and was buried in ash and pumice, for the most part. The digging to uncover Pompei was much easier
in ash and pumice, so it is the more well-known of the two. Herculaneum, on the other hand, was primarily
buried in pyroclastic flow, which was much harder to dig up. However, pyroclastic flow also preserved more
wood objects and some food objects. Our excursion
today focused on Herculaneum, since we visited Pompei during out previous
cruise.
Herculaneum is buried under what is now the city of Ercolano,
Italy. There are a couple of primary
reasons why more of Herculaneum hasn’t been excavated more fully. First, the archeologists decided to focus on
protecting and preserving the parts of the city uncovered, rather than try to
excavate more. The second reason for not
excavating more of the city is that it is under a current city, and there isn’t
anything like eminent domain in Italy, where the government can buy your home
since there is a good public reason for it.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Catholic Church owns much of the
land of Ercolano and have given the archeologists and government a firm “no”, preempting
any battle. You can see Ercolano at the
top of this image, with Herculaneum taking up the lower portion of the image. It also gives you an idea of how deeply buried it was, and how difficult the excavation has been.
Herculaneum was primarily made up of upper- and middle-class
families, and this image shows the difference in their homes. The image in the upper right is the front
yard area of one of the wealthy families and their balcony rail once looked out
to the sea and the area where ships came in to do trade. The lower left image is a gathering of homes
of the middle class – no balconies, and they were located well inland and close together.
This image shows you the sort of patio just below the balcony of
the wealthy family, and below the patio area were the boat houses. The excavation uncovered many skeletons of
people who rushed to the boat houses in hopes of being able to get on a boat to
escape the volcano’s devastation and certain death. They were not successful. Just fyi, the “bones” shown are actually
plaster casts of the bones, placed as the people had fallen. The real bones are in The Museum of Herculaneum
Artifacts. Such a solemn moment to walk
by this part of the excavation, even if the “bones” weren’t real. On a lighter note, this area has been taken
over by some wild chickens, and their antics couldn’t help but make us smile.
Jeff has a thing about liking to lean up against ancient
buildings, or in this case, pillars. He
only does it, of course, when it’s allowed!
One interesting note about these “red” pillars. Being buried in pyroclastic flow did preserve
the pillars and color, except that it turned gold color pillars into red
pillars. This is true for anything else
that we saw during our stroll. Anything painted
gold is now red.
Here are some walls from one of the middle-class homes. There was a mural on the far back wall, a plaque
on another, and a painting that still can be partially identified as a
painting/drawing. There will be more of
these to follow!
This may have been the same home as above. The floor was a mosaic in an interesting
geometric design, and due to being buried in pyroclastic flow, the bed is still
preserved, to an extent. What remains is
what was made of metal (legs) and wood (bed frame).
We walked past this sort of doorway to what seemed to be a
sidewalk, along with the top corner design.
The area rwe walked on was considered a street, and carts and
horses/mules could be found on those streets, when Herculaneum was a thriving community.
These sidewalks seemingly connected the middle-class homes.
Yes, they had fast food in Herculaneum!! The image on the right was of a street that I
mentioned above (the gentleman was one of our co-excursion tourists) and Paulo,
our tour guide, was explaining how the front pots were what some food was
cooked in, and behind him was an oven and broken oven where breads would be made! Very cool to see what I perceived as a “modern”
convenience in a city that existed prior to 79AD!!
The green lawn area was used for exercise by the men of the
city. Given that there are two distinct
areas, I’m kind of thinking one of them may have been used to play some sort of
game. In the back left of the image, you
can see some folks walking through a door.
Let’s see where they went!
It is a bathhouse used by the men after their exercise. The upper left image is of the cloak room where
they could hang up their clothes before entering the actual bath. The image on the upper right is a photo of
the roof over the bath. It was curved with
ridges in it so that the steam that rose from the hot bath water, could run
down the sides of the walls back into the bath, and not drip on the gentlemen. The middle lower image is of a tiled floor in
the bathhouse. If you look closely, you
can just make out a lighter, almost white area that runs horizontally through
the floor. The floor actually collasped from when the effects of the volcano hit.
As we walked through the rest of the city, we saw what their
side streets looked like, and saw that some homes were 2 stories high – others were
3 stories high! On the far right, you can
see a watering fountain that was in the street.
The water was believed to be drinkable, although I’d want to get it as
it flowed from the spout, before any horses/mules might have had a drink from
the actual tub the water was kept in!!
The wall on the far left is interesting. Throughout the city, the stones
making up the walls often are disintegrating.
However, the mortar used to lay the stones/bricks is not disintegrating
at all. In fact, many architects visit
this area and do studies on the mortar to see exactly how it’s made. Since it hasn’t disintegrated in almost 150
years, the thinking is that this would be a good mortar to use for current building
projects that require underwater mortar!
So far, they haven’t yet figured out the correct mixture!
These walls were found in another home – perhaps upper middle
class or lower wealthy, if that’s a term!!
It’s incredible how much of the artwork painted on the walls, or perhaps
laid in tile or stone, survived the volcano.
We all got a bit of a chuckle from the sign on the left in this
image. It’s a sign from outside what
would have been a sort of tavern back in the day. The sign depicts how much each type or size
of drink would cost. Unfortunately, I
don’t speak "Herculaneum", so I don’t know what the sign actually says!! The image on the right is of what is believed
to be a wine storage jar. Now, before
the wine drinkers get excited thinking about the great wine it might have
contained, Paulo, our guide, told us that the wine back then was a far cry from
the wines of today. The worse wine from
today would be considered pretty tasty when compared to what they made up!!
These walls are from a small cathedral that exited in Herculaneum
built by a home owner to celebrate and honor a god from that era. Remember,
all that red was gold back in the day.
The most interesting thing, though is the image in the upper right
corner. The black material is actually a
petrified wood beam that ran across the ceiling in the small cathedral. Amazing.
And all good things must come to an end. This is a view from Naples from the balcony
in our stateroom just before we left port.
Great day! Our next stop will be
another great city in Italy!!
Enjoy!
