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Pompeii & Herculaneum: Destruction / Archaeology / Findings

I am not a simpleton!

My point was that the grafitti was found in Pompeii. The main language was Latin. It would be normal to only remark upon the language if it were not the most commonly spoken/written one.

Although Yiddish and Russian were the second and third most spoken languages in the East End in 1888, few authors explicitly mention that The Goulston Street grafitto was written in English as that is the natural assumption.

Yes you are :p:D
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Doesn't change the fact that a lot people spoke and wrote Greek.
 
This approach to stone pavement repair seems surprisingly odd enough. The mystery lies in how the Romans were able to use molten iron for such mundane maintenance purposes.
Ancient Romans Used Molten Iron to Repair Streets Before Vesuvius Erupted

Ancient workers used molten iron to repair Pompeii's streets before the historic and devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, a team of archaeologists has discovered.

The discovery reveals a previously unknown method of ancient Roman street repair and represents "the first large-scale attestation of the Roman use of molten iron" ...

Many of Pompeii's streets were paved with stone, but during a survey in July 2014, archaeologists found that over time, the passage of carts eroded those stones to form deep holes, or ruts. Repaving streets was an expensive and time-consuming process, historical records and archaeological remains show. ...

"One option for repair, complete repaving in stone, was a difficult and expensive endeavor that might block important through-routes in a city for months," the researchers wrote in their paper.

This posed a problem for the people of Pompeii, since some of the city's many streets could become eroded quickly. ...

The team found that "the Pompeians devised another option [for street repair] that was ingenious and unconventional: after heating iron or iron-rich slag to a molten state, they poured out hundreds of individual repairs onto, into and below the paving stones of the city's most important streets," the researchers wrote.

After the molten iron was poured, it filled the holes and hardened as it cooled down. In addition to iron, other materials such as stone, ground-up pieces of terracotta and ceramics were also inserted into the holes to help fill them up. This method of repair was cheaper and faster than repaving a street, researchers found. ...

"How the Romans introduced liquefied iron material into the streets at Pompeii remains a mystery," the researchers wrote. ...

FULL STORY (With Illustrations): https://www.livescience.com/65479-ancient-romans-used-molten-iron-street-repair.html
 
Would it not have been easier for them to have used molten lead?
Melting iron is a LOT more difficult.

Yes - lead should have been more economical to use, and its use as a sealant is well documented in Roman metal work.

On the other hand, lead is soft and wouldn't hold up under the street loads and impacts nearly as well as iron.
 
Yes - lead should have been more economical to use, and its use as a sealant is well documented in Roman metal work.

On the other hand, lead is soft and wouldn't hold up under the street loads and impacts nearly as well as iron.
But embedding the lead with chunks of stone would have worked OK.
 
Didn't they also have a type of cement they could use?
 
Pompeii archaeologists uncover 'sorcerer's treasure trove'

Archaeologists working in the buried Roman city of Pompeii say they have uncovered a "sorcerer's treasure trove" of artefacts, including good-luck charms, mirrors and glass beads.

Most of the items would have belonged to women, said Massimo Osanna, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

A room with the bodies of 10 victims, including women and children, was excavated in the same house.


Full Story With Images:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49325627
 
Good luck charms! Well I think we can consider that question settled! :rollingw:

Though it could be these were just too cheap to work. I have some much dearer ones, if anyone is interested . . . :evillaugh:
 

More news on the scrolls.

Scientists believe they have discovered the technology to read the charred and blackened scrolls left behind after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.

Two complete scrolls and four fragments were buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and are too fragile to be opened. They came from the so-called Herculaneum library, the only one surviving from antiquity. Experts hope that the delicate documents can once more be read thanks to an innovative approach involving high-energy x-rays and artificial intelligence, reports The Guardian.

The documents have been examined by the synchrotron, a particle accelerator in which beams travel around a closed-loop path to produce light many times brighter than the sun.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/103605/wi...letter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
 
I am not a simpleton!

My point was that the grafitti was found in Pompeii. The main language was Latin. It would be normal only to remark upon the language if it were not the most commonly spoken/written one.

I understand your argument, but I'm not sure your premisses are correct. I believe that the cultured upper classes in Roman society often spoke and wrote in Greek. It was something of a status symbol and class thing.

Centuries later, in a country where people conversed daily in English, Sir Isaac Newton wrote "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica". Even today, lawyers will talk of res ipsa loquitur, or contra proferentem.

The Romans had a massive empire based on taking, borrowing, and copying whatever they wanted from around the known world. They were technologically and militarily sophisticated barbarians, but the more cultured and thoughtful ones (and the snobs) looked back on the classical Greek period as sophisticated and as something to emulate. Indeed, at least until recently, knowledge of ancient Greek and or Latin is still seen in England as a sine qua non of an upper class education.

Therefore, it is entirely likely that a scroll found in a Roman town was written in Greek, and therefore it was worthwhile to point out that it was written in Latin.

That apart, it is surprising how many people these days would need to be told that the Romans spoke Latin.:)
 
Pompeii volcano ‘boiled people’s blood instantly’ and made their heads explode
... The researchers believe the searing heat in the chambers may have boiled the people’s blood – making their heads explode.
The researchers write, ‘An extraordinary find concerns skulls filled with ash, which indicates that after evaporation of the organic liquids the brain was replaced by ash. ...

More recent findings include brain tissue that had been fused into a glass-like material ...
Extreme heat of Vesuvius eruption turned a man's brain to 'glass'

A man who died in Herculaneum during the historic Vesuvius eruption was found with an exploded skull and glass-like brain tissue.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79, the volcano unleashed an avalanche of gas and rock hot enough to boil blood, vaporize flesh and even transform bits of brain tissue into glass, according to a new study.

Archaeologists rarely uncover human brains during their digs, and if they do, the organs feel soap-like and smooth. During a process called saponification, triglycerides in the fatty brain tissue react with charged particles in the surrounding environment, transforming into soap over time. Scientists found something very different, however, when they examined the remains of a man who perished in Herculaneum during the Vesuvius eruption.

Enveloped in a surge of hot ash, the victim's brain had been burned to twisted black bits through a process called vitrification. The glassy material "encrusted" the surface of the man's skull ...
FULL STORY:
https://www.livescience.com/vitrified-brain-of-vesuvius-victim-found.html

-------------------------------------
PUBLISHED ARTICLE DATA:

Heat-Induced Brain Vitrification from the Vesuvius Eruption in c.e. 79
The rapid rise in extreme heat during the Vesuvius eruption in c.e. 79 resulted in the conversion of human tissue to glass (vitrification). Among the recent finds at Herculaneum was tissue residue that could be identified by chemical methods as vitrified brain tissue.

January 23, 2020
N Engl J Med 2020; 382:383-384
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1909867
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1909867
 
In case you wondered how much heat Herculaneum's victims were exposed to, the January 2020 Live Science article cited above says this:

Based on analysis of the charred wood found near the corpse, the team determined that the room likely reached a maximum temperature of 968 degrees Fahrenheit (520 degrees Celsius). The extreme temperature would have been hot enough to "vaporize soft tissues" in the victim's body and burn every last trace of fat. ...
 
More recent findings include brain tissue that had been fused into a glass-like material ...

Continuing research has identified glassified brain cells within the previously reported vitrified brain material.
Glassified brain cells found in victim of Vesuvius eruption

Preserved brain cells have been found in the remains of a young man who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

The brain cells' structure is still visible in a black, glassy material found in the man's skull. The new discovery of this structure, described today (Oct. 2) in the journal PLOS ONE, adds to the accumulating evidence that this glassy material is indeed part of the man's brain. The transformation to glass occurred as a result of extreme heating and rapid cooling.

"The results of our study show that the vitrification process occurred at Herculaneum, unique of its kind, has frozen the neuronal structures of this victim, preserving them intact until today," study lead author Pier Paolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at University Federico II of Naples in Italy, said in a statement. ...

Petrone and his team have previously analyzed the remains of Herculaneum victims, suggesting that their body tissues may have vaporized in the cloud of hot ash; earlier this year, they reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that they had found the glassy remains of a brain in the body of the 20-year-old from the Collegium Augustalium.

Now, using scanning electron microscopy to see the most miniscule details of the sample, the researchers have discovered tiny spherical structures and long tubular structures that look just like neurons and their projections, called axons. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/preserved-neurons-vesuvius-eruption.html
 
Didn't we have a thread about people returning stones etc to where they were taken from, after they seemed to bring bad luck?
A pilgrimage path in Ireland springs to mind.

My son and his girlfriend visited the famous Capello dos Ossos (Chapel of bones) in Faro, Portugal a year or so back. I remember him saying he saw a loose portion of cranium on a windowsill and was very tempted to pocket it as a grim souvenir.
I am VERY glad he didn't!
 
My son and his girlfriend visited the famous Capello dos Ossos (Chapel of bones) in Faro, Portugal a year or so back. I remember him saying he saw a loose portion of cranium on a windowsill and was very tempted to pocket it as a grim souvenir.
I am VERY glad he didn't!

Yup, I once picked up a small cobble stone from a famous city square that was being remodelled and took it home, and from that day onwards everything went pear-shaped!

It didn't occur to me for years to be superstitious about it, by which time it had vanished from the hearth where I kept it so I couldn't return it. Mysteriously, nobody ever owned up to moving it!

I like to think it eventually had enough of wreaking havoc on on my life and slipped away back to the dreaming spires...
 
Tough luck surviving only to die the next day.

The skeletal remains of what are believed to have been a rich man and his slave fleeing the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago have been discovered in Pompeii, officials at the archaeological park said.

The partial skeletons were found during excavation of an elegant villa on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city that was destroyed by the eruption in 79AD.

It is the same area where a stable with the remains of three harnessed horses was excavated in 2017.

Pompeii officials said the two men apparently escaped the initial fall of ash, then succumbed to a powerful volcanic blast that took place the following day.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40086797.html
 
Archaeologists have now revealed the findings from excavating one of the many 'fast food' establishments scattered throughout Pompeii.
Mallard to go? Dig of Pompeii fast-food place reveals tastes

A fast-food eatery at Pompeii has been excavated, helping to reveal dishes that were popular for the citizens of the ancient Roman city who were partial to eating out.

Pompeii Archaeological Park’s longtime chief, Massimo Osanna said Saturday that while some 80 such fast-foods have been found at Pompeii, it is the first time such a hot-food-drink eatery — known as a thermopolium — was completely unearthed.

A segment of the fast-food counter was partially dug up in 2019 during work to shore up Pompeii’s oft-crumbling ruins. Since then, archaeologists kept digging, revealing a multi-sided-counter, with typical wide holes inserted into its top. The countertop held deep vessels for hot foods, not unlike soup containers nestled into modern-day salad bars. ...

Valeria Amoretti, a Pompeii staff anthropologist, said “initial analyses confirm how the painted images represent, at least in part, the foods and beverages effectively sold inside.” Her statement noted that duck bone fragment was found in one of the containers, along with remains from goats, pigs, fish and snails. At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans, which in ancient times were added to wine for flavor and to lighten its color, Amoretti said. ...

Also unearthed were a bronze ladle, nine amphorae, which were popular food containers in Roman times, a couple of flasks and a ceramic oil container. ...

FULL STORY (With Slideshow): https://apnews.com/article/animals-c0560dcc81056b3397b4cdda704fcfe1
 
At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans, which in ancient times were added to wine for flavor and to lighten its color, Amoretti said.
They also had serial killers back then, it seems.
 
Damn it! they've sold out of Larks' tongues, Wrens' livers, Chaffinch brains, Jaguars' earlobes, Wolf nipple chips, Dromedary pretzels & Tuscany fried bats. I don't know, even if "Marcus et Spencus" have any in stock.
 
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An intact ceremonial chariot has been discovered in an outlying settlement associated with Pompeii.
Archeologists find intact ceremonial chariot near Pompeii

Officials at the Pompeii archaeological site in Italy announced Saturday the discovery of an intact ceremonial chariot, one of several important discoveries made in the same area outside the park near Naples following an investigation into an illegal dig.

The chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in the ruins of a settlement north of Pompeii, beyond the walls of the ancient city, parked in the portico of a stable where the remains of three horses previously were discovered.

The Archaeological Park of Pompeii called the chariot “an exceptional discovery” and said “it represents a unique find - which has no parallel in Italy thus far - in an excellent state of preservation.” ...

The chariot was spared when the walls and roof of the structure it was in collapsed, and also survived looting by modern-day antiquities thieves, who had dug tunnels through to the site, grazing but not damaging the four-wheeled cart, according to park officials.

The chariot was found on the grounds of what is one of the most significant ancient villas in the area around Vesuvius, with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea. on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city. ...

... Archaeologists believe the cart was used for festivities and parades, perhaps also to carry brides to their new homes.

While chariots for daily life or the transport of agricultural products have been previously found at Pompeii, officials said the new find is the first ceremonial chariot unearthed in its entirety. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/italy-e2e86ce8b22658c06b23fc88b6705b73

Edit: See Also:
https://www.sciencealert.com/ancien...-parades-unearthed-almost-intact-near-pompeii
 
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A skeleton discovered near Herculaneum is thought to be the remains of a rescuer.

"Archaeologists in Italy believe they have identified the body of a rescuer killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago.

The skeleton, originally thought to be an ordinary soldier, was among some 300 found at Herculaneum in the 1980s.

It is now thought he may have been a senior officer in the rescue mission launched by historian and naval commander Pliny the Elder.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57055163
 
Cooked in olive oil.

Almost 2000 years ago, a volcanic eruption buried the seaside Roman town of Herculaneum in the same rush of hot ash and gas that decimated Pompeii.

The catastrophe didn’t just preserve buildings and bones—it saved clues to the Roman diet. A new analysis of the bones of 17 victims reveals what these ancient villagers were eating, and in what proportions. Residents scarfed a lot of seafood and olive oil, confirming historians’ estimates that average Romans consumed 20 liters (more than 5 gallons) of the oil each year.

Previous studies have only given broad outlines, not the nitty-gritty details, of the ancient Roman diet, says Erica Rowan, an archaeobotanist at the Royal Holloway University of London who was not involved with the new work. “Here they do a good job” of filling in those details.

In 79 C.E., in a desperate attempt to escape the impact of the Mount Vesuvius eruption, the people of Herculaneum huddled in boathouses along the town’s waterfront, situated on the west coast of central Italy. But a sudden blast of 250°C ash and gas killed them instantly, cooking their flesh while preserving their bones almost perfectly.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...obs-olive-oil-and-fish-volcano-victims-reveal
 
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