A Day in Pompeii

Pompeii was a place on my "Bucket List" that George and I definitely wanted to visit.  Since Doug and Joyce had already been to Pompeii, we were on our own while they visited Herculean.  I will put a link at the end of this blog so you can enjoy their fascinating visit to that city.    

When we arrived in Pompeii, it was even more intriguing than I had even imagined!  (My sister, Joyce, did such extensive research on this city, most of the historical facts are from all that research after they visited Pompeii a few years ago!)  

  POMPEII--founded in 600 BC, eventually became a booming Roman trading city.  Not rich, not poor, it was middle class--a perfect example of typical Roman life.  It served an estimated 20,000 residents with more than 40 bakeries, 30 brothels, and 130 bars, restaurants, and hotels.    
At about noon on August 24, AD 79, Mt. Vesuvius blew (mountain is showing behind George in the picture), sending a mushroom cloud of ash, dust, cinders and rocks 12 miles into the air.  It spewed for 18 hours straight, as winds blew the cloud southward.  The white-gray ash settled like snow on Pompeii, collapsing roofs and floors, but leaving the walls intact.  Two thousand of the town's 20,000 residents were entombed under 15-20 feet of powder.

Pompeii was rediscovered in the 1600s; excavations began in 1748.  The streets, placement of buildings, homes, businesses are all there minus the roofs.  Many artifacts were found, but they are all protected in the Archeological Museum in Naples. 

The Large Theater in Pompeii was built in the usual Greek fashion which utilized the natural slopes of a hillside. Before Pompeii was destroyed the seats were numbered.  The theater could accommodate 5,000 people.  An enormous cloth canopy was used to protect the audience from the sun and wind. This theater is occasionally used for performances today.

There were so many stray dogs everywhere in Pompeii.  Evidently they come into the city during the day, and go back to the mountains at night. 

Here was a mother dog with her puppies.  Of course, George had to try to make friends with them.

Every day, Pompeiians flooded the streets with gushing water to clean them.  These stepping stones let pedestrians cross without getting their sandals wet.  Chariots traveling in either direction could straddle the stones (all had standard-size axles).

Notice how the wheel grooves in the pavement have worn down through centuries of use!

Our Italian guide telling us about the "fast food" places to eat.  These eateries were marked by a series of rectangular marble or stone counters.  Most ancient Romans didn't cook for themselves in their tiny apartments, so "to-go" places like this were commonplace.  There are more than 160 in Pompeii.

The holes in the counters held the pots for food.  Each container was like a thermos, with a wooden lid to keep the soup hot, the wine cool, and so on.

The stubby stone towers are flour grinders.  Grain was poured into the top, and donkeys or slaves pushed wooden bars that turned the stones.  The powdered grain dropped out of the bottom as flour--flavored with tiny bits of rock.  Each neighborhood had a bakery like this.  You can see the brick oven in the back.  It looks like a modern-day pizza oven.

During excavations, centuries old blackened loaves of bread were found inside many of the brick ovens.  There was no time to remove the bread when Vesuvius exploded.

 

From the aqueduct-fed water tank at the high end of town, three independent pipe systems supplied water to the city:  one for baths, one for private homes and one for public water fountains.  (You can see part of the water tower in this picture.)

Public water fountain/well--If there was a water shortage, the last water supply to be cut off was to the public fountains.

 

Only the wealthiest had indoor plumbing.  Others in the neighborhood would carry water from this trough.

 

 

Workers are piecing together the second story of one of the houses/businesses on the street.

A very interesting place that our guide took us (which has had the roof restored) was the brothel.  We were told this place  was likely popular 2,000 ago.

The ancient graffiti includes tallies and exotic names of the women, indicating the prostitutes who came from all corners of the Mediterranean (it also served as feedback from satisfied customers).

The brothel was a simple place with beds and pillows made of stone.

The faded frescoes above the cells may have been a kind of menu for services offered.  Our guide told us that since people came from all over the world using many different language, pictures were used rather than words to demonstrate services offered.  I only took a picture of a rather PG service.  Some of them, I seriously had to look away!

A typical street had two-story houses with balconies.  Some homeowners would have shops on the ground level.

The Forum - Pompeii's religious, commercial, and political center.

This certainly wasn't an easy walk for the elderly, but my husband is always the gentleman!

The "beaver-teeth" stones sticking up in the middle left are traffic barriers that kept chariots out.

The Temple of Jupiter.   Jupiter was the supreme God of the Roman Pantheon.  It had two triumphal arches on either side.

Administration building, city hall, etc., where town council was held.

Marcellum (Covered Market) where Pompeiians came to buy fresh food:  fish, bread, chickens, etc.

A wonderfully preserved mosaic, so simple, but so beautiful.

House of the Faun (a mythological creature)--This is Pompeii's largest home, where you are greeted by the small bronze statue of the Dancing Faun.    With 40 rooms and 27,000 square feet, the house covers an entire city block, but it had open areas included in the square footage.

 

Inside the house area was a huge garden and fountain.

 

The famous floor mosaic of the Battle of Alexander---In 333 B.C., Alexander the Great beat the Persians, and Romans had great respect for Alexander, the first great emperor before Rome.

George and I in the House of Faun.

Pompeii had six public baths, each with a men's and a women's section.

This is where the patrons would hang their clothes

The bath houses were very decorative with beautiful frescoes on the ceilings and walls.

The fountain for steam baths which spouted water onto the hot floor and created steam.

The double floor was heated from below, and double walls with Terra-cotta tiles held the heat in the walls. 

Romans soaked in the big tub filled with hot water.

This was known as the Frigidarium or cold plunge.  After opening their pores in the hot baths, they would then plunge into a large pool of cold water to close their pores.

This mosaic can be seen on the floor in the entrance to the House of the Tragic Poet, across the street from the Forum Baths. The Latin inscription can be translated, "Beware of the Dog."

Before the eruption, a warehouse and grain market were being built in the background.  Now, it is a storage area for archeological finds:  urns, vases, and yes, even people.

While excavating, modern archaeologists detected hollow spaces underfoot, created when victims' bodies decomposed.  By gently filling the holes with plaster, the archaeologists were able to create molds of the people who were caught in the disaster. 

This person evidently saw the end was imminent and curled up waiting for his death.   He apparently had a cloth over his nose and mouth, but obviously, that did no good.   There was no forewarning of the devastation this would bring. 

Ash, pumice and gas suffocated the victims!  You are looking at modern plaster mixed with ancient bones!

A dog that archeologists believe was chained outside a house.  (See the collar around his neck.)

Pompeii certainly was a site where so much history was revealed of the daily life of its inhabitants, as well as probably what was going on in most other cities in the area at the time.

This was an experience George and I will never forget.

Leaving the archeological site to the "real world" on the outside.

A little open-air cafe right across the street from Pompeii.

Truly a great day in Pompeii!

While Pompeii was covered with ash and powder from the volcano, the city of Herculean was covered with lava which actually preserved it better than Pompeii.  As I said, Doug and Joyce had already seen Pompeii, so they went to Herculean.  You can see their adventures and fantastic pictures on this link:

http://sixgirlsoneboy.blogspot.com/2012/03/day-9-naples-cameo-factory-herculaneum.html