ironic?

--> I had to take a break from writing the other day. There was just so much to say about Rome! But it was not where the story ended. During our time in Italy, we took one day and made the journey south to see Naples and Pompeii. I had remembered learning about Pompeii in middle school but never really grasped what it meant or the implications of the history associated with it until now. Behind us in this picture, mostly covered up by clouds (unfortunately) is Mount Vesuvius. The still-active volcano six miles from the village of Pompeii erupted in 79 AD with such force and magnitude that the initial gas from the eruption killed everyone in the village from asphyxiation within three minutes of the initial blast. Everything was buried in 60-some feet of ash and pumice. In the 1500s, archeologists began to uncover the city, which had been extraordinarily maintained by the ash.

--> Excavation work has been going on for a couple hundred years now, and there is still much to be done to uncover the city. They know that the village had suffered from a destructive earthquake a couple years prior to Vesuvius and was in the process of being rebuilt when terror struck again. As you wander the streets, I was struck by how advanced people were 2000 years ago. 2000 years, which I am now realizing in the scope of time isn't that long, I had perceived to be very primitive. These people definitely weren't. You can still see sliding doors, a plumbing system, remnants of art, open-air markets, restaurants, an arena, and an outdoor theater with accoustics as good as any built today... It was unreal. They say that there were about 15,000 people who lived in Pompeii and while they did not have the technology to predict volcanic eruptions like we do today, they lived by instinct. 12,000 people evacuated the city based on intuition prior to the eruption. The remaining 3,000 were killed and buried in ash.

--> One of the methods that archeologists are using to learn more about the people of Pompeii is plaster-cast molds. While some of the actual arifact, or in this case, bodies, are not preserved by the burial, the original shape still remains. They have been able to create several plaster-cast molds of people who would have been killed and buried.


--> On a lighter note, though, this is a picture of the best preserved house they have on site. There are several rooms, this one is the room you walk into when you first come through the front door. It has an open spot in the middle of the ceiling and a spot on the floor beneath it for catching water from rain. You can still see paintings and artwork on the walls. The other thing we were told about here, that I found quite interesting, was how resourceful the people of Pompeii were. In their bathroom, there were seperate places for urine and defecate. This was because they would sell the defecate to farmers to fertilizer and use the urine for a source of ammonia. Kinda gross, but resourceful!

As you all are aware by now, the volcano with the really long, unpronouncable name in Iceland erupted a few days ago and has caused all sorts of problems here in Europe. I feel I am definitely getting my dose of volcano education between my trip to Vesuvius and now the more recent chaos. Who knows, maybe I will be needing to take a boat home in June? Anyone willing to come pick me up? Haha.