Half Naked and Down in a Big Hole
Someone once said, "We become archaeologists for three reasons: to dig in the dirt, to avoid growing up, and to drink a lot." I believe in this.
9.12.05
More Answers
Ooh! I got questions from people, and only just now discovered them after a long time of not looking at my blog. keep the questions coming and i'll keep answering (assuming i actually check this thing once in a while). So here are some answers:
What condition is pompeii in now?
well,that's a multifaceted topic. two thirds of the city have been uncovered down to their pre-volcano (the 79ad eruption) level. the city was first excaved in the 1700s when information gathering was not the goal and finding pretty things that look good in a recently classicaly-interest-minded court of Spain foyer. So massive uncovering and artifact recovery efforts were put into effect to the detriment of the city. then it was left to weathering and tourism and dogs and earthquakes and WWII allied bomb attacks for 300 years (at least in some areas). so the majority of the wall paintings, once as brilliant and vivid as the day they were painted, have faded to near nothing. walls are crumbling, plants are creeping around and through ruins. which is not to say that conservation attempts have not been made. several rounds of well intentioned flurries of 'saving the ruins' have happened, but you never know how things will weather over time and effect the ruins in the long run.
for instance, one such attempt was made at keeping wall plaster stuck to walls. the stuff kinda peels off the walls after years of rain seeps between and this effort involved knocking the crumbling adhesive plaster out from between the painted plaster and the wall, and pouring new concrete between to restick it. good idea, right? in theory. the problem is that after a little time, the compositions of the modern concrete and the ancient plaster and mortar reacted to one another and caused everything to fall apart at a faster rate than if the plaster had been left to peel off. good idea, bad practice.
another example is lintels. a lintel is the beam across the top of a doorway, usually made of wood in ancient times. so in the course of the time between volcano and now, the wood (of course) biodegraded. to keep walls from falling in on their doorways, concrete lintels reinforced with iron rebar were put in the place of the once-wooden lintels. again, a good idea. but the iron rusts and corrodes and breaks the concrete apart, bringing down the wall.
then there are the lesser, simpler tries that also have failed. clear plastic coverings over the remaining wall paintings to keep tourists from touching (VERY BAD for ancient paint) or graffiti-ing them which end up encouraging condensation which degrades them.
But! the city is no less fanominal for all of this, and unless you make note of these things yearly, not noticeable unless you have something to compare.
the best way to preserve anything is to leave it buried. the dirt protects everything from weathering exposure and tourists and the like. so in the mid 90's, a law was passed barring the uncover of any as-yet unexcavated portion of the ancient city. this means only the still-buried-in-volcanic-debris areas (about a third still untouched). this does not affect sub-79ad excavation, the type that the AAPP, among others, is doing. and concervation efforts are getting better, or at least more considered.
is pompeii still being worked on???? How far is the excavation???
yes, definitely. see above. one third of the city completely untouched, two thirds uncovered from 79ad volcanic debris, but only rarely excaved below 79ad floor level to find development, change and purpose. so it'll be a LONG time before the city is 'done', if ever.
I went on a tour of Pompeii in the summer of 2004. I guess I got distracted when our tour guide got to this part because I can't quite remember the details, but is it true that the people of Pompeii were much shorter than we are today?
well, that's sort of true of most peoples of pre-modern medicine and nutritional understanding. but they weren't hugely shorter than people today. shorter, yes. they also didnt live as long (on average) as we do today, again for the medical reasons. but it's not as if they were pygmies in comparison to us. modern italians are shorter on average than americans too, so some things dont change.
you also very very much cannot take tourguides in pompeii seriously. i could devote an entire post to the crazy stories tour guides tell tourists. hmmm, maybe i will.