Pompeii- Part I

The first thing I noticed once I got into Naples was a stray dog coming into the station to take a dump at the bottom of a flight of stairs, then it lifted it's leg at the corner of a wall and took a leak against it. Ah, Napoli. How I missed you so. The ride from Termini, Rome's train station, took about 1 hour and 15 minutes through the Eurostar train, so I was down south in no time. It was hot and sticky, and as I walked to the cicumvesuviana, the train that connects the region of Campania together, I noticed a thick dark haze shrouding the city. If you've ever been to Tijuana, Mexico, I suppose that would be the best comparison. It's very hot, choked with pollution, people, and noise, and everything seems on top of you. It's also home to the Camorra family, the ruling Mafia around here. Given all that, I quickly made my way to the train, taking the SORRENTO line to Pompeii.

I made my way up to Villa Dei Misteri Motel, where the Pompeii Food and Drink group was staying. I introduced myself to some of the members when I got there, then did the formal introduction before dinner. There were people from all around the country, of different ages and sexes, although the majority had ties to the University of Maryland (where the project is based out of), and quite a few from New York City. They told us we were now officially workers for the Italian government, and they laid out an evacuation plan in case Vesuvius decided to erupt again, since it's long overdue (everyone laughed, because they doubted it could be pulled off by the state). It was eerie to see that volcano towering above us all, knowing what it had once done 2,000 years ago, and what it's expected to do next in the near future. Anyways, I really liked the group that came together for this, as everyone was very nice and knowledgable. We all had dinner above the pool of the hotel, and we enjoyed ourselves with pasta, wine, and gelato before going off to work in the morning.

I won't get into each day's experiences here because it would take too long to describe everything that happened. But I will do my best to give an account of what it was that I did and where we went as a group to give you a feel for what the experience was like. I was assigned to the drawing team with two other people - a team leader (Shelly), and a fellow volunteer (Gina). I helped take measurements of structures and features around the ancient city, while the team leader sketched it out and recorded the findings. The first house we went to was a mess. Located near the center of town, it was, for the most part, rubble. Around 150 bombs were dropped by the United States and it's allies on Pompeii during World War II (we thought they were hiding ammo in some of the buildings), and you couple that with earthquakes, volcanoes, neglect, vandalism, and the ravages of time, and you're going to get some structures where it's difficult to make out much of anything. Fortunately, this structure still had a little kitchen area along with a lararium, a household shrine where little statues of the Lares (the household gods) were placed. Some were richly decorated with designs and bright colors, and often had a picture of a writhering snake underneath... but most were plain little niches in walls. A lot of them were found in kitchen areas, though there is some debate whether or not some of them were either shrines or areas to strore kitchen goods. That, unfortunately, is one of the most frustrating, yet at times interesting things about Pompeii: the debate about what something might be, or what happened in a structue. Many times during the project, we would have to wait until the project leaders were done arguing with one another over what certain structures may have been or what they could have been used for. The debates surrounding Pompeii are numerous, and everyone has an opinion on something. Even those who think they are right most likely are not. Classicists, art historians, and archaeologists make up a shake-and-bake bag of people with different views on everything surrounding this site (and most of them ridicule each other underneath their breath), but Pompeii has also given us a huge amount of valuable information regarding everyday life during the high point of the Roman Empire.

We would stay at a house or structure until we were done with measuring every wall and feature, such as a lararium, or triclinium (the dining room with three couches usually connected to one another where three Romans would lay across three to a side and eat). A lot of the triclinia we identified and measured seemed to be outdoors, with gardens and vineyards next to them, where people would probably dine during the summer when it was really hot. One of the houses I was lucky enough to work in was the House of Felix and Sabinus. I tried looking up some information on this house, but couldn't find much about it, as it is closed to the public. Being able to walk into structures and see things that tourists don't have access to is an amazing feeling. It was interesting to see how the Romans re-used their materials, as one of the couches next to the triclinium had drinking vessels built into it as support at the base of the stone couch. There was a broken amphorae (wine jar) next to it, and it still had ash and pumice stuck to it from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Next to the modern vineyard (which was reconstructed from evidence of a prior vineyard in antiquity), was a hole in the ground - most likely from a Allied bomb. The house also had a lararium with a snake underneath it, and some colored plaster still sticking to the walls. All of these structures have no remaining roofs, since they all crashed to the floor during the eruption. Many of the walls have been reconstructed, as well, so at times (even with a professional architect) it is difficult to tell what is ancient and what is a modern restoration. Some homes have broken amphorae lodged into the tops of walls; this was done by caretakers who used these ancient artifacts as a sort of barbed wire to keep one from hopping over walls. It looks stupid, and was an even dumber idea. In fact, a lot of strange things are going on around Pompeii. The ancient theatre has been "restored", where they have placed perfectly placed cut stones over the ancient seating area, making it look clean and modern for shows during spring and summer (this, along with many other modern improvements around the theatre has turned it into someting new, and is no longer - in my opinion- an ancient theatre). The sidewalks in the city, where you can see traces of lead pipes that carried water, and bits of pottery and marble stuck in the ground, is being repaved with modern concrete to make it more accessable for tourists to walk on. There are other places on the site that are being worked on, and some people have complained that the city is being turned into a Disney-like attraction: Pompeiiland. There is a good side to it all, though. There really are a lot of improvements around the site, and it seems a lot friendlier and accessable to the public. A lot of homes and sites are being opened up after long restorations, and they look wonderful. It's a mixed bag, and it will be interesting to see where they go with the city.

Well, this is just little of my experience, opinions, and feelings surrounding my time in Pompeii. I will write up a second part to it all, with a little more detail on some of the lectures, people, and sites that I came to know throughout my stay last week. For now, it's off to the airport to pick Jordan up, and head to Sorrento to explore the Amalfi Coast.