Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure
by Joseph Deiss
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph DeissEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-09-21
ISBN: 0892361646
Number of pages: 238
Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum
Book Reviews of Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure
Book Review: 2,000 Year-Old Time Capsule
Summary: 5 Stars
This fascinating look into a volcano created time capsule of life in the Roman Empire provided this reviewer a strange kind of therapy. Because the event happened so fast everything in the Roman Town of Herculaneum was left exactly as it was when the earth quake followed by the fast moving flood of thick pyroclastic waves swept over and buried the entire town and many of it's inhabitants. Buried deep under a volcanic matrix and ash the locations of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and other small towns were forgotten, new towns and villages were built atop the ruins and every hundred years or so Vesuvius erupted again burying Herculaneum deeper as well as some of the new communities built above them. The last eruption occurred in 1944 before the volcano once more assumed a mask of harmlessness.
It's apparent that after both Pompeii and Herculaneum are totally excavated and studied that they will again be buried in yet another eruption of the nearby mountain. In Herculaneum, the town has been slowly, painstakingly freed from the rock-hard casings entombing it using picks, drills and finally soft brushes. But it was built between two streams flowing from the volcano and will once more be the low point in the path of the next pyroclastic and/or lava flows. Since the Italian Government doesn't have the funds to properly protect and excavate most of Herculaneum that is still encased under 65 to 100 feet of volcanic rock, it may be best that it isn't even uncovered and instead is saved another few thousand years for future, and wiser archeologists to uncover and marvel at. The town really is amazing. Ironically, the pyroclastic flow, unlike lava, didn't destroy everything it touched. Food, fruits, ropes, fish nets, wooden furniture, cloth, even a private library of 1800 papyrus scrolls of books and plays survived. In the 1980's skeletons were found on what was originally the community's beach, but is now 500 yards inland. Sea level is now 13 feet higher than the beach of 2,000 years ago (I wonder how that squares with Global Warming theories?) and the skeletons of unsuccessful fleeing residents of Herculaneum were accidentally discovered when a drainage system was being built.
Since Roman's practiced cremation, these dozens of complete skeletons have provided archeologists with their first look at the health of the average Roman during the Roman Empire. One of the skeletons was that of a soldier complete with his armor, sword and his carpenter tools attached to his belt. Roman Legionnaires were also required to be skilled craftsman as well as soldiers. Roman men averaged 5'7" and women of the time averaged 5' 1 and 1/2" in height and are two obvious examples of the kind of information the skeletons provided today's experts. Teeth were in excellent shape probably because of the lack of sugar in the average Roman diet (they preferred honey). Lead poisoning was not a major problem as many experts have postulated.
Herculaneum is a treasure trove of history. Jewelry, household items of all kinds including toys, wooden furniture, art works, statues, books, architecture, even the uneaten food left on tables at meal time was encased and preserved for the future historians. I'm not an expert in architecture but as I read this book I could see the history of architecture unfolding before my eyes. It wasn't difficult to see how in the future the contemporary world around us will fit into the continuing development pattern as well. Will archeologists of the future be digging up our local Malls and trying to picture our civilization through their reconstruction?
Reading this book provided this reviewer with a new prospective on history. It freed the mind from worry about America's current political and economic problems because it puts them in their proper place. They are only a blip in the history of the world. This book is so well written that the Roman Town of Herculaneum comes alive for the reader. It's possible to visualize its citizens and slaves going about their daily lives as if one was hovering over them in an invisible time traveling observation bubble. And this book definitely confirms that the Romans were a very sexy and erotic civilization. They liked their fleshly pleasures. They were also the cleanest of the early western civilizations. Roman baths were social centers of the population and individual homes had running water and constantly flushing latrines. This book is a wonderful, very enlightening read. It's more like fiction, but the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Summary of Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure
A vivid portrayal of life in Pompeii's sister city, this book includes a detailed description of the ancient Villa dei Papiri, on which the present Getty Museum in Malibu is modeled.Art History Books
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