We Haven't Forgotten About You

Man, what a series of crazy happenings since last time I wrote to you, I almost don't even know where to begin. Last Wednesday was the 12th of July, my birthday and, as I would come to find out, the birthday of Samantha Brockette, the daughter of a friend and former guitarist of mine from Boston, Sean. Super-cute pix of her can be found here. I still can't believe he's a daddy...when Samantha gets old enough, oh the stories I'll have to tell! ;-)

Thursday morning Carin left for London and I left with the class on a bus for an adventure to Herculaneum and Pompeii, two cities which were buried by the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Right now I'm going to tell you a little bit about my journey to the two Italian towns and I'll give you a little about Carin and I in London later on today, as I have limited time at the moment.

As you probably know, Pompeii was especially well preserved by falling ash from the sky, so well in fact that loafs of bread, houses and streets, and of course, people still existed relatively intact when excavations began a couple of hundred years ago. Because of all the ash that fell upon the small coastal town of Herculaneum (first picture), the excavation of what is left is in a deep, deep pit you have to walk down a huge ramp to get to. It was amazing to experience the first real feeling of walking down a Roman street the way they would have 2000 years ago with small scale shops on either side and houses tailored to the family's needs. The picture on the right here shows the level to which some of the tilework and such is preserved in Herculaneum. This piece is from a rich family's home. We hang pictures on the wall, they brought artists in to do frescos and mosaics directly on the walls of the house. Wow.

If Herculaneum was cool then Pompeii was really nuts. Unlike Herculaneum, which is in a "pit" now, Pompeii rests on top of a great hill that got buried by Vesuvius. This pictures shows what is left of the great Pompeii basilica, a place that would have held worshipers back through history. At the time of the great eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was actually in the process of rebuilding from a massive earthquake that had happened only 17 years prior. Many of the buildings that are therefore "unfinished", like this one, were actually knocked down by the earlier quake and were in the process of being rebuilt when Vesuvius erupted.

Pompeii was a relatively rich town at its height and had many very "posh" houses and neat public ammenities. Here is a pic of a column-cum-sundail I though was pretty interesting. Somewhat more disturbing is the plaster cast early excavators made of a person very afraid to die. The eruption of Vesuvius happened so quickly and without any warning that almost no one was able to escape. Probably one of the worst days in history for any city.

Its funny, in some ways I was so impressed by Pompeii and in some ways I was a little disappointed. You always hear that it is the "best surviving example" of a typical Roman town and I guess part of me expected buildings to be completely intact or something...unrealistic considering the tons and tons of hot ash and lava archaeologists had to dig through to get to what they could preserve. Pompeii, in its ruin, felt lonely, hot, and in general uncomfortable. You can tell it was once a great city and that great joy was had there, but the ghosts of the past are too powerful now. Seems like you can almost hear them speak to you when the hot wind blows.