8 finds shedding light on the history of Pompeii

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

How did archaeologists understand that it was Pompeii in front of them? How did a playful writing on a wall in a renovated house help change the dating of the Vesuvius eruption? And why did the ancient Romans wash clothes with urine? Alexander Butyagin, the author of a course of lectures on the legendary Pompeii and their tragic death

Excavations of Pompeii, who died in the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, began as early as 1748. Ten years earlier, archaeologists had begun excavating the nearby Herculaneum. In addition, dozens of ash-covered villas have been unveiled - the most famous of which are located in Oplontis and Stabiae.

The excavations were carried out with varying intensity, were briefly interrupted during a series of wars and political upheavals, but they continued to bring new and new discoveries that had a serious impact not only on the study of ancient antiquities, but also on the entire European culture.

During this time, hundreds of buildings were discovered, thousands of square meters of paintings and inscriptions on the walls of houses were discovered, and hundreds of thousands of finds were made. Some of them gave scientists invaluable new data, others allowed a new look at the known facts, and still others led to many years of painstaking research.

This is an interesting story of insights, mistakes and restoration of truth, characteristic of any real science. We have selected a few finds for you to help illuminate some of the details of this fascinating story.

1. Inscription of Titus Information Clement. Pompeii, AD 69-79

The inscription of Titus Svedi Clement. Pompeii, AD 69-79© Livius.org / CC BY-SA 3.0

It is hard to believe now, but the researchers did not immediately realize that they were digging Pompeii. Fields, houses and vineyards have changed the area around the Civita hill so much that the outlines of the ancient city were completely out of the question.

Excavations began here because the locals often found ancient things. The head of the expedition, the Spanish military engineer Rocco Joaquin de Alcubierre, did not know much about the ancient history of the vicinity of Vesuvius and was sure that he had begun excavations of the Stabias, the rich villas of the Roman aristocracy. The inscriptions found with the name of the city did not help either: they were interpreted as associated with the villa of the famous ally, and then the enemy of Julius Caesar, Gnei Pompey.

15 years after the start of excavations, in 1763, a stone slab with a red inscription carved into it was found near the Herculaneum Gate. It read:

"By virtue of the powers given to him by Emperor Vespasian Caesar Augustus, Titus Svedius Clement, the tribune, having investigated the circumstances and taken measures, returned the public places misappropriated by private individuals to the inhabitants of Pompeii."

Clement was a famous politician of the imperial era: his name is mentioned by the historian Tacitus, and it is also found in other inscriptions. The mention of the inhabitants of Pompeii made it possible to unambiguously identify the open ruins as belonging to this particular city.

Scientists abandoned the idea that the ruins of Stabia lie under the hill, and the ancient city regained its name, which had been lost for millennia. Later, three more such inscriptions were found in front of other gates of the city, but the discovery of the first of them was of particular importance for science.

2. Stone hand mills. Pompeii, 1st century AD

Stone hand mills. Pompeii, 1st century AD© James DeTuerk / CC BY-NC 2.0 / Penn State University Libraries

Journalists and their audiences are usually interested in finding treasures, while real scientists are most attracted to items related to production. There is nothing more interesting than learning how and what was done in antiquity. It is fairly well known how bread was baked - the ancient Roman authors wrote about it - but only Pompeii allowed this process to be presented from start to finish. The premises of bakeries with ovens were found, in one of which even burnt loaves were preserved.

One or more unusual devices of gray sturdy stone were located directly inside. Their lower part was a thick column, ending in a cone at the top, on which the upper part resembling an hourglass was placed, with a hole along its entire length.

Two more square holes were on the sides. It turned out to be hand mills. The grain was brought in bags directly to the bakery, and there they already ground flour, from which the dough was kneaded. The grain was poured into the upper part of the mill, like a funnel, and stone beams were inserted into the side holes, which allowed it to rotate around its axis.

A good job required an employee on each side. Already in the XX century, one of the hand mills was restored, adding the necessary parts, after which it began to regularly grind grain, as if it had not passed 2000 years. This is how scientists learned the exact performance of ancient mills, as well as how much flour the Pompeian bakers used to make bread.

3. Inscription in charcoal on the wall of the house. AD 79

Charcoal inscription on the wall of the house. AD 79© Storie & Archeostorie

It would seem that in a city where many things were found made of precious metals and bronze, marble statues and other treasures of ancient culture, the discovery of a small inscription made with coal cannot become a sensation, but not in this case. In recent years, for the first time in several decades, archaeologists have carried out large-scale excavations in the northern part of Pompeii. In 2018, a House with a Garden was excavated here.

The eruption of the volcano caught him at the time of renovation: in one of the rooms, white plaster had already been applied to the wall, but they had not yet started painting with paints. A small playful inscription contains the date - the sixteenth day before the November calendars, which corresponds to October 17. According to the letters of the eyewitness of the eruption of Vesuvius Pliny the Younger, it was believed that it happened on August 24, 79 AD.

However, scientists have long noticed that the victims of the eruption are wearing warm clothes, and there are braziers in the houses. In addition, during the excavations, traces of pomegranates were found, which ripen in September. Since the house was undergoing renovations, and the inscription was made with a short-lived coal, it can be assumed that it could not have appeared a year before the eruption or even earlier.

This means that it did not happen earlier than the second half of October, and possibly even in November. Just one small inscription on the wall forced the date of the eruption known to scientists to be shifted by two or three months.

4. Skeletons under the arches. Herculaneum

Skeletons under the arches. Herculaneum© Norbert Nagel / CC BY-SA 3.0

Even earlier, Pompey perished the small seaside city of Herculaneum: at the beginning of the first night of the eruption of Vesuvius, it was destroyed by gas and ash. The town was located not far from the surviving Naples, and for a long time it was believed that almost all the inhabitants managed to escape. The finds of the bones of dead people were so rare that one of the excavated houses, in which the remains were preserved, was even called the House of the Skeleton.

In 1980, in order to divert water from the excavation, they decided to lay a canal and excavate a coastline to the west of the city. During these works, small rooms were discovered, which were called arches: these identical rooms, open to the sea, had a vaulted end.

Some of these may have served as boat sheds, although no boat remains. But in the rooms and nearby on the shore, more than 300 skeletons of townspeople and even a naval officer were found. These findings made it possible to find out many facts about the inhabitants of Herculaneum, clarify the reasons for their death and correct the picture of the eruption of the Volcano.

In addition, a boat with fishing equipment, painted wooden ceilings and much more were found on the shore. Research in the arches continues periodically, and scientists do not get tired of multiplying and refining the data obtained.

5. Herculaneum cross. Herculaneum, 1st century AD

Herculaneum cross. Herculaneum, 1st century ADMissionary Department of the St. Petersburg Diocese

In January 1938, the famous archaeologist Amedeo Mayuri continued the excavation of the rich house, which he named the House of the Bicentennial in honor of the two-century anniversary of the beginning of excavations of Herculaneum. It must be said that due to the high temperature of the gas flow and the large thickness of the ash that blocked the city, organic matter was better preserved here than in Pompeii and other dead cities.

On the second floor of the Mayuri building, it was possible to open a small room, on the wall of which the image of a four-pointed cross stood out clearly. The joy of the archaeologist knew no bounds - he discovered a secret prayer room dating back to the first century of the development of religion. There is very little such evidence on the history of early Christianity, moreover, they are inexpressive, and here is a whole room!

Near the wall were found the remains of a small wooden cabinet and pottery, including a wine amphora. The cabinet appears to have served as an altar, while an amphora and other utensils were used for the Eucharist. In Catholic Italy, this find was received with unprecedented enthusiasm, and photographs of the room were widely distributed throughout the Christian world.

Until now, they can be found in various publications of religious leaders about the early followers of Christ. The absence of the cross itself (only a trace remained on the wall) was explained by the fact that the Christian was arrested and punished, and the wooden cross was broken.

Meanwhile, in 1977, a small villa was opened near Boscoreale, called Villa Regina. In one of the rooms, there are traces of shelves nailed to the wall, one of which left exactly the same cruciform mark. What Mayuri mistook for a cross was just the trail of a well-fortified regiment. There are archaeological discoveries, and there are, if I may say so, "archaeological closings", but they are also the result of many years of attentive work of scientists.

6. Fresco with the dance of the fullons. Fulonica Lucius Verania Gipsea. Pompeii, 1st century AD

Fresco with the dance of the fullons. Fulonica Lucius Verania Gipsea. Pompeii, 1st century AD© Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli / Diomedia

Vivid frescoes, preserved in abundance on the walls of the houses of Pompeii, also revealed many secrets of ancient civilization. The plots of some of the images are completely unique. In the 1820s, during the excavations of a quarter located in the western part of the city, an ancient laundry was found - fullonica.

The need for such enterprises appeared in the last decades of Pompeii's existence: enterprising citizens bought residential buildings and rebuilt them in accordance with production needs. A fountain was found in the peristyle courtyard of the laundry, located between two pillars - pylons.

On one of them, the image of the various stages of the Fulonica's work has been preserved: wringing out the linen using a press, cleaning and drying. Particularly interesting is the scene of the washing process, the so-called "dance of fullons": in Roman times, only men were involved in washing, as it required serious physical strength. As a cleaning agent, human urine was usually used, which was collected right on the street in amphorae, a kind of urinals.

The urine was mixed with water, poured into a basin where the cloth was placed. After that, the fullon put the basin between two low walls, on which he rested with his hands, and began to shake up the liquid with his feet and crumple the fabric. Here is such a living washing machine. Ancient writers testify that the quality of the wash was very high.

Of course, the fabric was then thoroughly rinsed and dried. Subsequently, such places for washing were found in another fullonica of Pompeii, which belonged to a certain Stephen: after the discovery of the frescoes in the laundry of Verania Gipsei, it was impossible to make a mistake.

7. Scythos depicting the triumph of the emperor Tiberius. Boscoreale, 1st century AD

Skyphos depicting the triumph of the emperor Tiberius. Boscoreale, 1st century ADMusée du Louvre

The reader of this text might think that archaeologists did not find anything of value during the excavations of Pompeii, or that they were not at all interested in precious items. Of course it is not. However, not much money and valuable items were found in Pompeii itself.

Apparently, some of the residents managed to take away with them, while others went to the looters who dug the buildings of the deceased city immediately after the eruption, when it was still possible to find out where everything was. The largest treasure in the history of excavations around Vesuvius was discovered during the discovery of the Villa Pisanella, located in the Boscoreale area not far from the volcano, which is why it was named Boscoreal treasure.

In 1895, the remains of a chest were found here, which contained more than a hundred silver vases, as well as the remains of a bag with a thousand gold coins - aureus. Most of the treasure was taken out of Italy and later ended up in the collection of the Parisian Louvre, and some of them ended up in the British Museum.

One of the best finds was a bowl - a scyphos depicting the triumphant departure of the emperor Tiberius, who ruled in 14–37 AD. All the details of the solemn event are visible on the cup: the clothes of the emperor, the man holding the wreath over him, the soldiers accompanying the chariot. These images made it possible to clarify the features of the Roman triumph.

8. Inscriptions on the wall of a cubicle with a double alcove. Stabiae, 1st century AD

The writing on the wall is a cubicle with a double alcove. Stabiae, 1st century AD© Alexander Butyagin

Russian archaeologists also contributed to the discoveries associated with Pompeii and its surroundings. In 2010, a small expedition from the State Hermitage began excavations at Villa Ariadne, which was part of the luxurious mansions in the Stabiae area. Excavations here were carried out back in the 18th century, after which the entire excavated area was covered up and forgotten.

New archaeological research began in 1950 and continues to this day. Russian archaeologists excavated in the area of the thermal complex - the private baths of the villa. There was a small courtyard near them, into which the bedroom window - cubicles - looked out. It was distinguished from other similar premises by its rich, multi-colored painting and form, which suggested the installation of two boxes here at once, and not one, as usual.

It was already excavated in the 19th century, when excavators broke the central part of the mosaic and carved out the most interesting parts of the frescoes. The excavations did not foreshadow any special discoveries. However, when the room was cleared of ash, it turned out that on its walls there were dozens of inscriptions in Greek and Latin, as well as the figure of a gladiator. Among other things, the inscriptions mentioned Poppaea Sabina, the wife of the emperor Nero.

She was from Pompeii and was famous for her beauty. The emperor loved her very much, but once, in a fit of rage, he kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, after which Poppaea died. The inscription indicates that Ariadne's villa belonged to Poppaea, and before that, probably, to her family. This discovery became possible thanks to the work of Russian scientists.

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