Anniversary of Pompeii

In honor of this week's anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius,

(August 24th, 79AD)

I am re-publishing this post on Pompeii.

Enjoy! 

Growing up in the relative poverty of the American Hippie movement,

Europe was an exotic and distant planet to me

and one I barely dreamed of ever seeing.

My heart raced and I believe I may have drooled slightly

when my 3rd grade teacher filed us into the library

and read to us about artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci,

the places they lived and worked

and the creations that fired from their brilliant, brimming minds. 

As long as I can remember, pictures of far-away lands fueled an ache inside me,

a fierce longing that churned and burned, roiling like lava itching to spread itself out onto the planet. 

When I was 14 and living in San Francisco,

an elder from my extended family handed me a book,

 and told me to read it. 

It was Gods, Graves and Scholars

by C.W. Ceram.

Then he told me about a place described in it that I'd never heard of;

about an ancient city buried in ash; about Pompeii. 

The book was a bit hefty and dense for a teen to slog through

but I kept it for decades and never forgot the incredible story of a city buried alive,

lost to the world and found nearly two thousand years later. 

So visiting Pompeii was a dream come true for me,

A place I thought I would only ever see in books.

(Temple of Apollo

built in 2nd century BC.)

(Statue next to Temple of Apollo)

By then, having realized my dream of living in and traveling through Europe,

I was still in awe when I arrived at Pompeii,

at actually seeing the place I had only heard about. 

While having seen many of the famous ruins of Greece,

I still wasn't prepared for the astonishing volume of buildings still standing,

not just 'ruins' but entire walls and fountains, columns and reliefs

still displaying their colorful paintings and intricate mosaics. 

This past weekend on August 24th, between noon and 1pm,

was the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius 

and the complete burial of two entire cities

(Herculaneum being the second.)

(And apparently now the day of a 6.0 earthquake in Napa Valley!)

On this day in the year 79 A.D.,

in the Campania region of Italy,

the baths were open and people gathered for lunch. 

There had been a few warning signs,

small earthquakes, water sources drying up

but they hadn't recognized them. Tremblers were common. 

To them, Vesuvius was just a neighboring mountain.

While the citizens of Pompeii sat down to lunch,

the skies darkened and hot ash and rock fell from the sky. 

People ran through the streets, pillows over their heads for cover.

Many escaped the city

but those who stayed, about 5,000 of the approximate 20,000,

were caught in the deadly wave of red-hot ash and gas on the second day.

This pyroclastic flow, reaching temperatures of 475 degrees celcius 

and moving at 100 miles an hour,

killed instantly those who stayed with their city. 

Their bodies, surrounded and buried by the hot ash,

left an ashen crust with cavities large enough for technicians of modern day

 to pour plaster casts of the body's exact positions,

sometimes even facial expressions. 

What's left of the city itself

is a stunning glimpse into ancient Roman life. 

Pompeii was founded around the 6-7 century BC.

(though some of the oldest carbonized tests date back to the 8th century BC.)

The houses of Pompeii were used by the wealthy

which accounts for the size and beauty of the interiors;

Holiday villas for wealthy Romans. 

Some of the homes were equipped with 'alcoves'

specifically for sexual entertainment

and in 1599, during the digging of a channel,  a few frescoes were uncovered

but were considered so salacious

they were re-covered and left for a few more hundred years. 

Many of the wealthy townhouses

had ornate fountains and dazzling mosaics and frescoes

which still stand.

(House of the Faun)

The above photo shows the House of the Faun,

 (excavated in 1830 by the German Arch. Inst.)

which took up 3,000 square meters

(a full city block.) 

It is so called because of the dancing faun in the marble impluvium.

Fauns were considered woodland spirits or forest gods similar to Pan

or followers of the Greek Dionysus or Roman Bacchus.

The impluvium was the sunken section, usually located in the atrium,

 used to collect rainwater,

 the atrium being the open space allowing for light and ventilation. 

Water collected in the impluvium was filtered through the cracks into a cistern below. 

During hot and dry times, the naturally-cooled water 

could be drawn back up into the pool and used to cool the atrium

and the house. 

For times when the streets ran with water,

stones were placed to create 'crosswalks.' 

One set of buildings sustaining the least amount of damage

were the baths (discovered in 1958) also known as The Suburban Baths.

They housed a dressing room (apodyterium),

a lukewarm room (tepidarium),

a hot room (calidarium)

and a cold room (frigidarium.)

It also held an exercise and steam room.

And of course, gorgeous artwork.

One of the many things I found so astonishing at Pompeii

were the huge quantities of artifacts still sitting on site. 

Shelves and racks and racks and shelves,

 glass cases of pots, jugs, art and plaster cast bodies

sitting in the open.

A museum in itself. 

Pompeii was a flourishing city and commercial port 

with much import and export trade.

Nearby fertile land provided abundantly with grapes, wine, olives and oil, wool, cloth,

animals, vegetables and cereal. 

Foods produced and consumed by Pompeiians included

walnuts, chestnuts, garlic and onions, 

figs, pears, peaches, and grapes, carob and beans.

The same plaster cast process used on the bodies of Pompeii

have also been done on tree and garden plant roots

yielding information on their planting patterns.

Much of the wine, olive oil and grains were exported 

and Pompeii was known for their own specific wine

known as Vesuvinum:

vinum being Latin for wine and you can guess where the rest comes from. 

Mastroberardino, a family winemaker in the Campania region,

is working on recreating Pompeiian wines as they might have been in Roman times.

With permission, they are replanting the same vineyards using the same grape varieties.

They've uncovered underground cellars of terracotta jars 

used to store the wine beneath the ancient vineyards. 

I've got The Chef working on 

how to get our hands on some of these new Pompeiian wines

they're calling the Villa dei Misteri project,

named for one of the well-preserved, out-of-town villas

known as the Villa of the Mysteries.

One of the heads of the project, Antonio Mastroberardino,

has been called "The Grape Archaeologist." 

We're hoping to take some friends to Pompeii for their first visit.

Having done this before with friends from Greece,

people who are used to their lands dotted with the many Greek ruins,

it is a gift to see the looks on the faces of those who have heard

but never really understood the full extent of the beauty of what has been preserved

at Pompeii. 

And for myself, 

I'm just looking forward to my next visit. 

Each visit, certain 'Houses' are closed to the public 

for various maintenance reasons

so each time yields something new,

some miraculous new discovery.

Just as when I was 14...

the story of Pompeii is imprinted on me.

And after having been there,

their personal stories

keep calling to me...

And one day, I hope to tell them. 

(All photos copyright: Kirsten Steen

Sources: Wikipedia, 

Judith Harris' 'Pompeii Awakened'

and DVD 'Pompeii, the doomed city.')

(Aside: After spending the better part of August 24th,

off and on, putting together this blog post,

The Chef found a local wine shop who carried a few bottles 

from the Mastroberardino family wines.

They are not from the Villa dei Misteri Project

---recreating the same varietals of grapes on exactly the same vineyards the Pompeiians used

of which very few bottles have been made and even fewer make it to the States

 costing in the $200/bottle range---

but they did carry Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio

or 'The Tears of Christ of Vesuvius.'

The name is derived from an old belief that Christ cried at Lucifer's fall from heaven, 

that his tears touched the land and gave divine inspiration to the vineyards. 

The deep lava gouges along the sides of Vesuvius make it easy to see why it got its name. 

And so far, according to archaeologists who have analysed the residue on the ancient taps,

this wine is the closest equivalent to that which the ancient Romans enjoyed.)