March 16, 2018   Friday       Herculaneum and Vesuvius

Located in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius is the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum that was destroyed in 79 AD by a pyroclastic flow.  Whereas Pompeii was buried in 13-20 feet of ash, Herculaneum was buried in 50-60 feet of ash and much more preserved than Pompeii.  Many homes retain their second stories and a few roofs.  There is even wood still in some homes!  Herculaneum is a smaller site with less tourists, another point in it's favor, so we opted to go there instead of Pompeii. 

WARNING:  Human remains at the end.  May be disturbing to some folks.

Looking down on Herculaneum at the beginning of the tour.

An ancient Roman road wide enough for chariot wheels, which came in a standard size.  Those Romans, great planners!  The sidewalks are built up to cover the pipes that bring water into the homes and keep citizens out of the mess of the streets that were washed regularly by purposeful flooding from the water system.

Herculaneum retains some vivid color.

Romans ate their mid-day meal at the small "restaurants" sprinkled throughout the town.  These large pots might be filled with soup or stew.

The groove under Simon's foot indicates a business of some sort that would have had an accordion door that would be opened during business hours.  The owners lived next to or above the shop.

A wooden bed frame!  Must have been a bedroom.

A larger shot of the bed frame.

A wooden partition door.

Marble bench in the entry way of a home.

Underside of a roof still in tact.

Main room when you enter this house.  The wooden doors could be pulled shut for privacy for the family.

Painted wall.

Table in a small courtyard.

Tiled hallway.  Some of the floors were covered with tiles as small as 1 cm x 1 cm!

Rod explaining some Roman building techniques.

Tiled floor.

Looking through several rooms of this house.  Tile throughout.  A little heaving in the middle room.  Many houses had this little collection pool in the center of the main/public area and the roofs slanted down, not up, and had holes in the center to divert rainwater into the little pool.

Courtyard.

Green space next to buildings.

The gang resting.  The first "bad" picture of Collin in two months!

A bust of the home owner.  It was amazing how much they have learned about the residents of Herculaneum.  Written documents were recovered and carefully read to gain information of the people and their lives.

More beautiful tile floors.

Entry way of a house.

The rainwater collection pool of a large home.

It was possible in ancient Rome for a slave to earn their freedom and become a property owner.  The Romans loved to write down their legal business so we know that this is the home of one such person.

Shelving that held jugs of wine, oil, etc.

Ancient jugs.

A well preserved shop.

Some more of the same shop.

Same shop.  So much wood still there!  Amazing.

Same shop.

This might have been a part of the house that held statues of Roman gods.  It was beautifully decorated and had several niches.

Another shot of the same room.

A street shot.  In some of the sidewalks, the Romans embedded white marble chips so with a lantern or a night with a full moon, you could navigate your way by the reflecting light.

The first room in a Roman bath.  Here, people would put their things in these cubbies.  Men and women had separate baths. 

Big marble basin in the baths.

Another shot of the cubbies.

Sitting in a bath.

Tile floor of a bath.

Another bath floor.

The "tub" in the back would have been one of three temperatures, hot, warm, or cold.

You can see into a second story of a house.

Exposed lead pipes in the sidewalk that carried water to the houses.  You can see where it branches into the wall of the house.

Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii.  It was a seaside town before the eruption.

One edge of the excavation because the modern town is built over a great deal of the ancient town.  In fact, Herculaneum lay hidden until the early 17 century when wells began to be dug in the area and the town was discovered.

A bakery with it's mill.

Also in the bakery.  I liked this picture mostly because Simon looks like he's giving a lecture on bread making!

Another mid-day meal restaurant.

I think this led to a stadium/theater kind of place.  It was unexcavated.

Going into the tunnel of the un-excavated stadium/theater.  You can see what had to be dug out to find the ruins.

This is 2000 year old paint.  The columns were made of brick and mortar and then covered with a kind of cement to look like marble columns.

The population of Herculaneum is estimated between 4000 to 5000 people.  When the earthquake activity began before Vesuvius erupted, some people evacuated.  Only one quarter of Herculaneum is excavated, but around 300 bodies have been found at the edge of town by the beach.  The Mediterranean Sea was 400 meters closer before the deposits from the volcano changed the beach to what it is today.  These victims are mostly women and children that took cover in the boat houses.  

This one appears to be a person with legs outstretched cradling a person with their legs drawn up.  So sad.

This was very hard to see.  The people were accustomed to earthquake activity and it served them well to come down to these very strong boat houses in the past, but Vesuvius had been dormant for 800 years and no one even knew what a volcano was at that time.  Roman literature shows, they had to invent the word for "volcano" after Vesuvius. 

The boat houses where the skeletons lay.

Vesuvius from the train on our way back to Rome.  It's the peak on the right.  It used to come to a point. The top blew right off!

Tired campers!  We put in something like 16,000 steps that day.





This was one of my favorite days because you could easily imagine life in Roman times.  Early Christian persecutions aside, the Romans did some amazing things!