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| Pompeii alongside Mt. Vesuvius |
A day after exploring the ancient underground of Naples, we
got the opportunity to explore the equally aged, but much more complete city of
Pompeii. A city buried under the ash of Mt. Vesuvius after her eruption in 79
AD. The eruption is well documented, and Pompeii was just rediscovered near the
end of of the 18th century. Ash had protected the underground city
from oxygen and essentially all aging processes, leaving a complete city intact
from 79 AD.
Walking through Pompeii was just plain cool, there is no
other way to describe it. Bars, homes, running water fountains, brothels, and
the world’s oldest amphitheater are all preserved to explore. We got to explore the theatres, testing their acoustics
with a glorious rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” performed by David and myself. All of this
existed and was used about 2000 years ago, perhaps for better thespians than
David and I.
Rediscovering Pompeii was an incredible process that is not
even fully completed. A single “modern house” still towers above Pompeii on a
hill near the amphitheater. The sulfuric gas from the eruption killed the Pompeiians very quickly, before it was covered in ash. Once bodies decayed, the compacted ash left full impressions of the bodies in the ash. Archeologists filled impressions left in the
compacted ash with plaster, and used it to create plaster replicas of people,
vineyard stakes, and vine roots from 2000 years ago.
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| A plaster cast made by archeologists |
Our most recent set of articles has focused on vineyards,
and the importance of wine for the Roman Empire. Dan and I focused on a
specific vineyard we saw that was discovered in Pompeii in the 1970s. The varying
practices for growing the vines included letting the vines spread out on the
ground, pruning the vines to stand alone without a prop, growing them along a stake, or stake and cross to prop the vines up. However none of these common
themes were used by the Pompeiians. Archeologists found (using plaster casts) they used a method with a
rectangular frame that created some shade and protected the grapes from winds and
natural threats. Vines on these frames took time to grow, but created a good
amount of high quality wine. With Pompeii’s dry, hot climate, the farmers were some
of the first to employ dry farming techniques such as sloping the vineyard, and
digging small holes around the stakes to catch the water.
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| A vineyard exemplifying the rectangular frame method |
Today, wine is grown in the very same vineyards we saw in Pompeii, in the very
same fashion as in ancient times. The ash has left the land very fertile, and
the interest of drinking the same wine as the ancient Pompeiians drank must
increase the demand for it.
I’ll end with a picture of some of us along the
beautiful Almalfi coast – which we all hiked the day after our visit with
Pompeii. For many including myself, the hike has been the best highlight among many thus far. Credit to Casey for the photo.
-Colton
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| The Almalfi Coast |
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