Herculaneum—The Other Major Town Buried Along With Pompeii During The Eruption Of Mt. Vesuvius

Herculaneum was a prosperous Roman settlement that flourished in the stretch of land situated between Mt. Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples. The town housed an estimated population of 5,000-10,000, only around half of what it’s nearby rival of Pompeii could supposedly tout, but Herculaneum had more than its fair share of luxuries and public structures. The town offered something for everyone. For athletes and players of sports, a palaestra was available for training and competition. There were also extravagant pools for both swimming and bathing, as well as a theatre for viewing performances. If scrolls and writings were your thing, at least one of the town’s villas, known now as the Villa of the Papyri, had a veritable library. And, of course, there was a marketplace for buying commodities, as well as brothels for purchasing pleasure. To top it off, the town and its establishments were decorated with numerous sculptures of marble and bronze, as well as painted works of art.

On August 24, 79 CE, a man named Pliny the Elder, as well as his nephew, Pliny the Younger, lived to the west of Herculaneum in a town called Misenum, located where the larger Gulf of Naples feeds into the smaller Gulf of Pozzuoli. In the early afternoon, both uncle and nephew were shocked by the sight of a huge column of sooty smoke that was climbing into the sky in the distance, near Mt. Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder, as commander of the local fleet, boarded a ship to go investigate and provide any help that was needed—it would be a one-way trip; he died of respiratory problems near the town of Stabiae, just south of Pompeii. Pliny the Younger, however, stayed behind in Misenum to read from the works of Livy, and only fled after some encouragement from his mother and a glance at the darkening, ash-filled sky. In the end, Pliny the Younger wrote at least two letters to the historian, Tacitus, in which he told of his experiences during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, as well as the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.

The gigantic column of ash, as well as the pyroclastic flow, that spewed from Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE completely buried the large towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii. It also destroyed other nearby settlements, such as Torre Annuziata and Stabiae.

Herculaneum was only rediscovered around 1709, when workers who were digging a well fortuitously struck their shovels against an ancient Roman wall belonging to the city’s amphitheater. As archaeologists began to unearth the center of the millennia-old town, they thankfully found a very small amount of human remains, leading them to believe that the city had been successfully evacuated. Nevertheless, during the 1980s, excavations of the Herculaneum docks revealed at least 300 skeletons in or around the empty boathouses near the beach. As far as archaeologists have discovered, all the viable ships of Herculaneum had already departed, leaving these victims stranded on the beach with only a broken and unusable vessel at their disposal.

The ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Torre Annuziata were named UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997. The excavation of Herculaneum, just like Pompeii, is still ongoing.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Top picture attribution: (The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, by John Martin (1789–1854), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• http://www.pompeii.org.uk/s.php/tour-the-two-letters-written-by-pliny-the-elder-about-the-eruption-of-vesuvius-in-79-a-d-history-of-pompeii-en-238-s.htm  
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-scrolls-blackened-vesuvius-are-readable-last-herculaneum-papyri-180953950/
•  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/829
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Herculaneum 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Pompeii 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Torre-Annunziata 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Stabiae 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Misenum 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pliny-the-Elder 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pliny-the-Younger  

Giuseppe Fiorelli—The Mastermind Behind The Haunting Plaster Casts Of The Victims of Pompeii

(left: cast of dog and chain from Pompeii, center: portrait of Giuseppe Fiorelli, right: cast of sitting man from Pompeii, all [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The Roman city of Pompeii began undergoing excavation around 1748, when King Charles VII of Naples (the later Charles III of Spain) decided to loot the ancient city’s art for his personal collection. Nearly a century later, the appointment of Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823-1896)—an Italian professor of archaeology from the University of Naples—as the head of the excavation of Pompeii, was a healthy change for the looted city.

Fiorelli directed the excavation of Pompeii from 1863-1875. Although some of his methods remained somewhat primitive and artifact removal, unfortunately, continued to persist, Giuseppe Fiorelli greatly improved the way Pompeii was being preserved. He developed several methods that have been embraced, perfected and enhanced by the next generations of archaeologists that came after him. For one, Fiorelli disapproved of the excavation system of digging out the roadways of Pompeii in order to find and excavate ancient buildings from the street level up. Instead, he found the tops of the structures and excavated the buildings from the top down to the floor-level. In addition to these excavation methods, Giuseppe Fiorelli also studied the topography, city planning and construction of Pompeii. At the end of his term as director of the Pompeii excavation, he published a book called Descrizione di Pompei (Description of Pompeii) in 1875. Yet, out of all of Fiorelli’s innovations, one clearly stands out—the plaster casts of Pompeii.

During his excavations, Giuseppe Fiorelli found that the decomposing and deteriorating materials from the ruins of Pompeii often left empty spaces in the ash that buried the ancient city. These cavities served as natural molds that, when filled with plaster, resulted in statues showing the dead in their final moments. The same technique could be used to cast wooden structures, such as beams and stairs, that had rotted away long ago. Unfortunately, Fiorelli did not clearly document his method for plaster casting, and much of the process remains a mystery. Researchers do know that he often added iron rods to provide structure for the casts of human remains—especially in the casts of large adults. Some casts of children do, however, contain only the original ancient bones underneath the plaster. Despite the dubious nature of Giuseppe Fiorelli’s casting techniques, the plaster casts continue to haunt and inspire viewers to this day, and the evocation of those very emotions is what the root  ‘muse’ is all about in the word, museum.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

•   Pompeii: The Dead Speak. A documentary Published by Smithsonian, 2016. 
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_rediscovery_01.shtml  
• http://www.pompeii.org.uk/s.php/tour-the-plaster-casts-of-fiorelli-history-of-pompeii-en-241-s.htm
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Fiorelli  

A Woman Named Julia Felix Led A Lavish Business Enterprise In The Ancient City Of Pompeii

(Fresco featuring money and writing instruments from the Roman fresco from the Praedia of Julia Felix in Pompeii, c. 62-79 CE, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Until Mt. Vesuvius destroyed the city of Pompeii on August 24, 79 CE, it was a thriving city with a population of around 12,000 people. Pompeii was well connected to the Roman maritime trade network and likely received a lot of traffic from ships entering and leaving the port. The city had anything these visitors (or locals) could want or need—an amphitheater, an elaborate public park, and a religious and political forum. There were even houses for Mystery Religions, and, of course, there were brothels.

Despite the generally male-oriented society of the Roman Empire, women in Pompeii seemed to have been able to carve out some surprising economic autonomy in the bustling city. There is evidence of women from the city loaning money to each other, managing businesses, and even owning the enterprises completely. Of these influential women in Pompeii, none showed more business acumen than Julia Felix, who possessed a villa near the town amphitheater.

Archeologists and historians hypothesize that Julia Felix began to develop her large estate into an economic marvel around 62 CE, when an earthquake gave her a reason to begin renovations on her property. She proved to be quite the entrepreneur, with her businesses catering to all types of people. By the time Mt. Vesuvius buried Pompeii in 79 CE, Julia Felix’ villa complex had become something of a luxurious resort hotel.

Her target clientele was the wealthy elite of society. Julia Felix advertised her private bath as a club where only the genteel were invited. She also rented some of her villa’s rooms to respectable people visiting Pompeii. She also had a beautiful garden and a swimming pool and, for added aesthetics, much of the villa was decorated with columns, statues and frescos. For those who wanted more than rooms, beauty and bathing, the complex also was outfitted with fully functioning shops. Catering to the lower classes, her villa also had either a tavern, restaurant or diner that served food and drink, which could then be consumed on built-in tables and benches. To bring in clients to her establishment, she had at least one sign erected outside of her villa to advertise for potential customers.

It is impossible to know how wealthy Julia Felix truly was, but the truth was probably very impressive. With Pompeii thriving as an economic port city, and with her ability to provide services for both the elite and common people of the city, she had the potential for an incredible amount of income—especially considering her location just a short distance from the city amphitheater. In all likelihood, Julia Felix was a very, very prosperous ancient woman.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• Pompeii: The Dead Speak. Documentary published by The Smithsonian, 2016.
• http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R2/2%2004%2003.htm 
• http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rome2007/Day59.html 
• http://www.ancienthistoryarchaeology.com/business-women-in-pompeii 
• http://www.pompeii.org.uk/m.php/museum-house-of-julia-felix-pompeii-en-92-m.htm