Pompeii

1
Pompeii
2
(No Transcript)
3
Outline

• Introduction
• Part I. The city
• Part II. The destruction of Pompeii
• Part III. The excavation
• Conclusion
• References

4
(No Transcript)
5
Introduction

• Pompeii ancient city of Italy, in the Campania
  Region, a few miles south of Mount Vesuvius,
  between Herculaneum and Stabiae
• Damaged by an earthquake in AD 63 and was
  completely demolished in AD79 by an eruption of
  Mount Vesuvius
• Remarkable degree of preservation of the ancient
  objects The showers of wet ashes and cinders
  that accompanied the eruption formed a hermetic
  seal about the town, preserving many public
  structures, temples, theaters, baths, shops

6
Part I. The city

• Founded about 600 BC, became a Roman colony in 80
  BC and later a favorite resort for wealthy Romans
• Population of about 20,000 at the beginning of
  the Christian era
• Place of considerable trade, port town of Nola
  and other inland cities of the fertile valley of
  the Sarnus
• Vesuvius volcano near Pompeii, only active
  volcano on the European mainland
• The top of mount Vesuvius was blown off by an
  explosion

7
(No Transcript)
8
Part II. The destruction of Pompeii

• The eruption changed the course of the Sarnus and
  raised the sea beach, placing the river and the
  sea at a considerable distance from the ruined
  city and obscuring the original site
• Remnants of some of the 2000 victims of the
  disaster were found in the ruins of Pompeii,
  including several gladiators who had been placed
  in chains to prevent them from escaping or
  committing suicide
• Some of these figures are exhibited in the museum
  erected at Pompeii near the Porta Marina
• Most of the inhabitants escaped the eruption,
  carrying with them their movable assets

9
Part III. The excavation

• For more than 1500 years Pompeii lay undisturbed
  beneath heaps of ashes and cinders, and not until
  1748 were excavations undertaken
• Famous work of excavation of the German classical
  archaeologist Winckelmann
• Some of the ruins were badly damaged by air raids
  during World War II and had to be restored
• Most of the movable objects that were found, and
  some of the best-executed wall paintings and
  floor mosaics, have been removed to the National
  Museum in Naples

10
(No Transcript)
11
Conclusion

• More than one-fourth of the city remains to be
  excavated
• But the buildings and objects provide a
  remarkably realistic and complete picture of life
  in an Italian provincial city of the 1st century
  AD
• The surviving edifices, representing a transition
  from the pure Greek style to the building methods
  of the Roman Empire, have been especially
  important for the study of Roman architecture
• An eruption in 1631 destroyed five towns and
  caused the deaths of more than 3,000 people

12
References

• http//http.cs.berkeley.edu/jhauser/pictures/hist
  ory/Rome/Pompeii
• http//old.jccc.net/jjackson/pomp.html
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.
  aspx?refid761576319
• http//www.thecolefamily.com/italy/pompeii
• http//cti.itc.virginia.edu/jjd5t/cww/1997/report
  2.html