Tag Archives: Pompeii

Bourbon Tunnels and Retrieving Lost Treasures

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Joanna muses on the Bourbon tunnels in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Pompeii, Casa dell'Efebo, Bourbon TunnelWhat is a Bourbon Tunnel, I hear you ask?

This image shows what is believed to be a Bourbon Tunnel in a decorated wall in the Casa dell’Efebo (House of the Ephebus) in Pompeii. But there’s more to that hole than you might think.

We need to go back to the early 18th century when monks in Resina, the town that had grown up over Herculaneum, were sinking a new well. By chance, they lighted on the upper tier of the theatre which had been adorned with beautiful statues. At the time, Naples was ruled by the Austrian Hapsburgs. When the wealthy Austrian Prince d’Elbeuf heard the news, he commissioned a programme of looting. His looters were to dig lateral tunnels from the well shaft and bring out what they found to decorate his new villa. Money talks, eh?

Looting was easy and fun? Not…

Looting was a dangerous occupation. Think about it. Continue reading →

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

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Joanna found lots of new material about life and death on her recent visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum

Skeletons on Herculaneum beachIf you have visited Herculaneum, you will no doubt recognise this image, of the skeletons on the beach front. These poor people were clustered together, almost certainly hoping to be rescued by sea. But it was too late. They all died where they waited. Rescue never came.

I had seen these places before, too, but it’s impossible not to be moved by them. Nearly 2,000 years ago, about 300 people waited down here, hoping against hope that the might of Rome would rescue them. But the fleet was unable to do so. The eruption was in charge and the sea state was impossible. Scientific study has shown that, mercifully, these desperate people all died instantly from “fulminant shock” from the pyroclastic surge.

New displays of life and death, but mostly death

Pompeii palaestra where young men exercised

The Palaestra in Pompeii where young men exercised (naked)

There are now excellent new displays in the museum along one side of the palaestra in Pompeii. (The higher wall in the background is the amphitheatre.) In the museum, we can see how people died — from the plaster casts of the body cavities in the ash — and, in some ways, how they lived. Continue reading →

Revisiting the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 : not just Pompeii

Joanna has been revisiting the Vesuvius area and seeing amazing new finds

Vesuvius from villa San Michele Capri

Vesuvius (seen from Capri) is still active and dangerous to those living nearby

I’m starting this blog with an image of Vesuvius as it now is. It dominates the whole region and is still active. It hasn’t erupted since 1944, though in theory it could do so at any time. But millions of people live on and around it, braving the danger.

Since my first visit to Pompeii and Herculaneum, nearly 10 years ago, archaeologists have discovered new finds and there are new museums on both sites. (Possibly fodder for a future blog?)

Vesuvius pre AD 79 with single peak

Peaked Vesuvius pre AD 79 with Bacchus
Public domain via Wikipedia

We know what Vesuvius did to Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. But they weren’t the only places that suffered from the eruption which blew off the whole of the top of the volcano. As this pre-eruption fresco of Bacchus and the serpent Agathodaemon from Pompeii shows, the mountain probably had a single peak and the area was celebrated for its wines and grain.

For today’s blog, I wanted to show you new finds from other places, specifically Positano and Terzigno. Never heard of them? No, I hadn’t either, but the treasures there are spectacular and definitely worth a visit if you’re in that part of Italy.

This graphic shows how far the ash spread from Vesuvius and how deep it was. Pompeii is in the middle section, with 5-7 metres of ash. Terzigno was a rural suburb of Pompeii and suffered the same. Positano, down on the Amalfi coast, is in the adjoining section, with 2 metres of ash. And of course, in addition to the ash and pumice, there was also the pyroclastic flow which finished off those who survived the initial eruption.

vesuvius eruption AD79 graphic

Continue reading →

Art or Porn? The Pompeii Poser. Joanna Reprise

Unfortunately, after her return from Greece, Joanna has 
Covid. So she's not up to writing a new blog. 
Enjoy her reprise! She'll be blogging again soon…

Warning: this blog contains images of full-frontal female and male nudity; if you are likely to be offended by those images, please do not read on.

On a recent TV programme on BBC4, Andrew Graham-Dixon mentioned (just in passing) that, in the nineteenth century, it was illegal for a woman to pose in the nude for a male artist. Really? Didn’t anyone tell Ingres?

Ingres: Odalisque with a Slave (1839)

Ingres: Odalisque with a Slave (1839)

Graham-Dixon was showing TV viewers nude paintings of ordinary Danish women. He said they would have created a scandal if they had been shown in public. So it was OK to put nude figures into classical poses, but not into modern-day, realistic ones?
Ingres’ Odalisque or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus was art but a Danish working woman was not? Continue reading →

Italica, the first city of Roman Spain: with geology problems

Roman Italica, Spain, panoramaLast week, I was visiting sites in Roman Spain (and sites from other periods too, but those are for another blog). The first Roman site was Italica, near Seville.

Italica was the birthplace of Trajan (he of the column, Emperor 98-117 AD) and also Hadrian (he of the wall, Emperor 117-138 AD). That reminded me, vividly, that not all Roman Emperors came from Rome.

Bust of Sulla now believed to be Scipio Africanus

Scipio Africanus (previously believed to be bust of Sulla)

Italica was founded long before either of those famous emperors, though. It dates back to the Second Punic War, the one with Hannibal and the elephants.  (You may remember learning about Rome’s decades of wars with Carthage and the latter’s eventual total destruction in 146 BC at the end of the Third Punic War. Carthago delenda est and all that, regularly declaimed by Cato the Elder?)

The Roman victor in the Second Punic War was Publius Cornelius Scipio whose victory in 206 BC at the battle of Ilipa (near modern Seville) ended the Carthaginians’ presence in Iberia. Scipio—later given the epithet Africanus for his final victory over Carthage—founded Italica for his wounded soldiers.
Well, he couldn’t easily send them back to Italy, could he?

Italica: old city and new city

There isn’t much sign of the old city, the vetus urbs founded by Scipio, as it now lies under the modern town of Santiponce. But Emperor Hadrian favoured Italica and gave it a lot of money to build a new, more splendid city. Much of that has been excavated and can be visited. EU citizens get in free. (Brits, sadly, don’t. Dontcha lurve Brexit?) Continue reading →

When is it Art and when is it Porn? The Pompeii Poser

Warning: this blog contains images of full-frontal female and male nudity; if you are likely to be offended by those images, please do not read on.

On a recent TV programme on BBC4, Andrew Graham-Dixon mentioned (just in passing) that, in the nineteenth century, it was illegal for a woman to pose in the nude for a male artist. Really? Didn’t anyone tell Ingres?

Ingres: Odalisque with a Slave (1839)

Ingres: Odalisque with a Slave (1839)

Graham-Dixon was showing TV viewers nude paintings of ordinary Danish women. He said they would have created a scandal if they had been shown in public. So it was OK to put nude figures into classical poses, but not into modern-day, realistic ones?
Ingres’ Odalisque or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus was art but a Danish working woman was not? Continue reading →