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Pompeii contribution to history and archaeology
Pompeii contribution to history and archaeology
Introduction to pompeii in English
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The vibrant mosaic tiles of the bath house became monochrome as thick grayness shrouded it, hiding the sun behind a wall of dust and ash. The bathwater, previously still and clear, rippled and reflected the dark sky. A glaring spew of fire lit the darkness, taking over the top of Mount Vesuvius. Nothing cascaded from the volcano except for rocks and ash. People stood up, confused as to where the day went. But soon, debris dropped from the sky like pebbles thrown from the heavens, covering the town and causing destruction in its path. Panicked, people ran everywhere, some to the roads and some to the harbor, searching for a clear sky to stand under. Mount Vesuvius had been dormant for hundreds of years, but suddenly erupted on August 24th, 79 C.E. Pompeii was a resort town in the Roman Empire, filled with summer homes of wealthy people and shops, entertainment and dining. Tiles adorned the streets and mosaic made up the walls, basking the town in an artistic beauty. But the everyday life of the citizens stopped harshly in their tracks as people dropped what they were doing to find safety and each other. Soon, the life within Pompeii was buried with its disaster. The culture of Pompeii, as well as Mount Vesuvius’ history and impact, destruction of Pompeii and the reaction that it brought throughout Italy is looming in that area, and their past is still being unearthed in modern times.
With shops lining the streets and entertainment right around the corner, Pompeii was a cultural hub. Originally a small coastal town, Pompeii soon grew as merchants set up trade routes and the Roman Empire continued its expansion, handing Pompeii more wealth and allowing the small town to grow. The Etruscans dominated the city and Greek influences w...
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Ball, Jessica . "Mount Vesuvius - Italy." Mount Vesuvius, Italy: Map, Facts, Eruption Pictures, Pompeii. Geology.com , n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Henderson, Amy. “Fools for Lava; The Timeless Beauty, and Obvious Danger of Vesuvius.” The Weekly Standard. The Weekly Standard, 11 June 2012. Web. 8 Mar, 2014
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Lost City of Pompeii. New York: Benchmark Books, 2000. Print.
Senatore, Maria Rosaria, Annamaria Ciarallo, and Jean-Daniel Stanley. “Pompeii Damaged by Volcaniclastic Debris Flows Triggered Centuries Prior to the 79 A.D. Vesuvius Eruption.” Pompeii Damaged by Volcaniclastic Debris Flows Triggered Centuries Prior to the 79 A.D. Vesuvius Eruption. Geoarchaeology, 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Sonneborn, Liz. Pompeii; Unearthing Ancient Worlds. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. Print.
Throughout the ages, many scholars and future-scholars have offered an explanation for the meaning of structures from the ancient years, either by their placement or construction. None has fascinated or pushed scholars for reasons than structures and art of the ancient Romans, more specifically those constructed in the years of the Pax Romana and Crisis and Decline of the Roman Empire (27 BC to 284 AD).
Mount Vesuvius is one of history’s most recognizable Volcanoes, as each of its eruptions have gone down as a significant event in geologic history. The events that transpired during and after these eruptions have shaped the way scientists and people view the sheer power that these volcanoes possessed. This report will take a look at Vesuvius’ most prolific eruption in 79 AD. The geologic setting of the mountain, precursor activity, and the impact the eruption had on the surrounding populations and towns will all be detailed. Along with these details, this report will also look at the further history of Vesuvius’s explosive past by detailing its eruption cycle. Finally, the current state of Vesuvius and the possible danger the current population living near the mountain could face should it erupt explosively again.
Public architecture in the late Republican period changed dramatically as Roman politics placed increased emphasis on conquest through expansion. Victorious generals often employed their own architects to build public monuments ex manubiis (Ward-Perkins 20). Julius Caesar constructed his Forum Iulium near the Forum Romanum while Pompey the Great constructed his Theatrum Pompei in the Campus Martius, and the complexes greatly impacted the status of the generals in Rome. Pompey and Caesar were in fact builder-generals, and they utilized the public nature of the complexes for their own ends. In merging religious cult with personal glory in the context of a public complex, they present such high-powered propaganda to the public that only increases their power as generals and Roman leaders. Pompey’s complex was so grand and monumental that it set the stage for those to come, like that of the Forum Iulium. Caesar’s complex, however, was even grander than that of Pompey as he affirmed his divine lineage throughout the entire space, making it extremely powerful. The Theatrum Pompei and Forum Iulium are examples of a larger theme in the late Republican period, where dictators like Caesar and Pompey demonstrate the use of a tool for orchestrating domination and separation from the lower class to maintain their position of power. Builder-generals like Caesar and Pompey set the true foundations of the political propaganda that would arrive in the Augustan period.
In the antique land of Rome, a shattered visage of a man lies. This statue, in frigid stone, represents a man who built one of the most formidable empires in human history, all while setting the course for its eventual downfall. As the morning sun rises over the horizon in a blaze of glory, the statue illuminates and reveals the somewhat melancholic ivy as it slowly envelops the forgotten emperor. Beside the statue, hanging on a ruined stone wall, is a painting of the city that once stood tall and proud. The painting depicts a beautiful scene that shows a joyous crowd watching in awe as colossal wooden galleons triumphantly enter the city on a river. You stare into the painting and as you look deeper you find yourself transported back in time to an Empire long since lost.
Pompeii, rome was a city that had an extremely interesting and sublime history, this city had gone through a disaster that enabled many archeologists to find many artifacts that were held inside of this city of ash. In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted, encasing the town in a sheet of not lava, but pure volcanic ash that caused for the city to have been completely buried and hidden from the world, Pompeii was no to be rediscovered for many years to come. "The ruined city remained frozen in time until it was discovered by a surveying engineer in 1748." (Owens). The eruption of Mount Vesuvius had caused for the city of Pompeii to remain in a "Time Capsul-like" state, making it a preserved ground for exploration.
The first reason that Alexandria has had such a lasting impact on today’s society was because it was such a large and grand city. In fact, it was the largest and richest city in the eastern region of the Roman Empire. In fact, it was one of
Materialism consumed people of Pompeii. For example, during the eruption of Vesuvius, citizens could be seen running away carrying all their valuable gold jewelry and belongings. In Achen, there was the Christian belief that you should die a pauper because your afterlife is what mattered.
Nearly two millenniums ago a massive eruption rocked the Roman city of Pompeii, destroying buildings and coating the town in deep layers of volcanic ash. Fortunately, this same ash served as a tool for preservation and has allowed archaeologists to discover the remains of various types of Pompeii’s art. The values, beliefs, and daily workings of Roman culture have been brought to new light through the paintings, mosaics, statues and other forms of art found in the lost city of Pompeii.
Architecture is the staple of the struggle of one’s people, the height of one’s success and the motivation to conquer when one is defeated. It reveals more about one’s people than what the entire populace is able to utter in words and symbols. Architecture has the most influence on one’s people than perhaps the people themselves. Architecture has power, gives hegemony, and empowers its people. It comes to no surprise that Rome is considered the more powerful cities in the world because its architecture reveals the most about its reign. Rome is most known for their architectural designs much of which had influences from Greek culture. They were enthused by their Etruscan neighbors that guided them to develop knowledge that became essential in creating the design works that they utilized for future art works (Trueman). Given their new found knowledge and influences from Greek and Phoenician cultures they were able to implement some ideas into their own stately figures that reflect their lifestyle. It was then that Roman architecture flourished throughout the Empire and Pax Romana century (Trueman). Their architectural designs resembled a wealthy lifestyle. A...
3)Dionysius, Earnest Cary, and Edward Spelman. The Roman Antiquities. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1937. Print.
The most iconic volcanic eruption in history was the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Mt. Vesuvius is located on the west coast side of Italy. Pompeii was the ancient town five miles from Mt. Vesuvius where people would flock to the area in 79 AD to be near the Bay of Naples. Little did they know that the volcano would erupt into the most destructive volcano in history. Mt. Vesuvius has erupted about three dozen times and was the most disastrous due to the large population around the area. The volcano, which is still active today, is a stratovolcano. A stratovolcano has pyroclastic flows and erupt explosively and violently. Pyroclastic flows don't necessarily look exactly like “flowing eruptions”. These eruptions are not the “flowing” type of eruptions because they are eruptions with explosions and blowing clouds that fill the air. These clouds are usually dark clouds that are made up of ash. Pompeii had some signs of the volcano erupting, but the technology was not like the technology of today where scientists can monitor the volcanic activity.
...ws the transition from archaic to the classical period. The Roman’s continued with a more realistic style with such statues as Aristocrat with Ancestors and Marcus Aurelius. In wall paintings at Pompeii the artists used great color and realism on the people’s faces.
Pompeii is possibly the best-documented catastrophe in Antiquity. Because of it, we know now how the Pompeians lived because they left behind an extensive legacy of art, including monuments, sculptures and paintings. Pompeii lay on a plateau of ancient lava near the Bay of Naples in western Italy in a region called Campania, less than 1.6 kilometers from the foot of Mount Vesuvius. With the coast to the west and the Apennine Mountains to the East, Campania is a fertile plain, traversed by two major rivers and rich soil. However, in the early days, it was not a remarkable city. Scholars have not been able to identify Pompeii’s original inhabitants. The first people to settle in this region were probably prehistoric hunters and fishers. By at least the eight century B.C., a group of Italic people known as the Oscans occupied the region; they most likely established Pompeii, although the exact date of its origin is unknown. “The root of the word Pompeii would appear to be the Oscan word for the number five, pompe, which suggests that either the community consisted of five hamlets or, perhaps, was settled by a family group (gens Pompeia)”(Kraus 7). In the course of the eight century B.C., Greek and Etruscan colonization stimulated the development of Pompeii as a city around the area of the Forum. A point for important trade routes, it became a place for trading towards the inland. Up until the middle of the 5th century B.C., the city was dominated politically by the Etruscans.
The architecture and urbanism of the Greeks and Romans was very different from the Egyptians and Persians. Civic life gained importance for all members of the community. Greek civic life was sustained by new, open spaces called the agora which were surrounded by public
Mount Vesuvius is a strato-volcano consisting of a volcanic cone (Gran Cono) that was built within a summit caldera (Mount Somma). The Somma-Vesuvius complex has formed over the last 25,000 years by means of a sequence of eruptions of variable explosiveness, ranging from the quiet lava outpourings that characterized much of the latest activity (for example from 1881 to 1899 and from 1926 to 1930) to the explosive Plinian eruptions, including the one that destroyed Pompeii and killed thousands of people in 79 A.D. At least seven Plinian eruptions have been identified in