Pompeii - What have we Learned

We spent today at Pompeii... just a stone's throw from Mt Vesuvius... where 20,000 citizens lost their lives in 75 AD. We all know the story of Pompeii ... just at sunrise, citizens were awoken by a thunderous bang... "What was that", they asked and looked up to see a mushroom cloud circling Mt Vesuvius... "Lucky it wasn't an earthquake"... the town had been flattened by an earthquake 90 years previously. They hurried to get dressed just as big lumps of ash started to fall... they had a terrifying 10 minutes of bombardment... scared the life out of them... but not too much damage. "Thank goodness that's over." Some started to run... some sought shelter in their homes... it didn't matter much what they did... taking a couple of breaths of intense ash didn't do their lungs much good... they sank to their knees and perished... buried under 4-6 metres of very fine ash. 

There are few recommended ways of leaving this mortal coil... but if you want eternal recognition, suffocating under 4 metres of volcanic ash is probably one of the better ways. As these citizens died, the ultra-fine ash dust packed in tightly around them... getting into the crevasses of their skin... into their ears... into their hair... it was as if they had been set into a plaster cast. Over 2,000 years their flesh and bones disappeared leaving a void where their bodies had been. The archaeologists discovering the site were very clever... they poured plaster of paris into the voids... and when they carefully chipped away the ash-rock... they were left with amazingly clear representations of what Pompeii residents looked like in 75 AD... they looked very scared... and who can blame them.

Pompeii is on the 'A List' of world tourist spots... many of you have been there. Were you surprised at the size of the site? Were you surprised at the high standard of town planning? Were you surprised by the high quality of the dwellings? There were houses used for food preparation and retailing... but we found no examples of goods manufacturing (other than food). Where were the blacksmiths... the horse stables... the carpenters? Where did the road labourers live... the water authority workers... garbage collectors... wood suppliers? Did all the service provider workers live outside the city... and commute in each day... was the city reserved for the upper classes... and their domestic slaves? Have you figured out these issues? 

What has the world learned from Pompeii? Not much... if you observe the population now settled around Mt Vesuvius! Some scientists have estimated that most of the 3 million people now living within striking range... would feel decidedly ill if Mt Vesuvius was to repeat its 79 AD performance. Could it actually do a repeat performance? Many scientists say "yes". It has a very long history of bad behaviour. In recent times, it has continued to spit and swear within clear hearing. This bad boy is a recidivist showing no sign of reform.