Yesterday, I spent the day communing with the dead of Pompeii. I didn't mean to, and yet, there I was, watching scenes play out in my mind while I wandered villas, gardens, and streets. The experience regularly made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and me to question my ability to tell the now from the then.
Truly, I felt the dead walking with me.
If I had wanted a similar experience in Herculaneum, I would have been sadly disappointed. The city sits in the center of a thriving town called Portici, now referred to as Portici-Ercolano. You see, the difference between Pompeii and Herculaneum is that Herculaneum had been built on top of, while Pompeii had not. So when Herculaneum was found - in the middle of an already-established town - the dig site became part of the city. Just... deeper down.
I'd spent a lot of time in Pompeii framing my pictures to exclude anything modern or supportive. In Herculaneum, that was considerably harder. Many of my pictures show modern buildings all around it, or scaffolding, or any number of other bits of debris and detritus that come with it still being a work-site for archaeologists and construction workers surrounded by a living town. I think this may be what kept the ghosts at bay.
What I did learn at Herculaneum, however, was the how of living like a Roman. More importantly, as I noted in my post on Pompeii, many of the questions that I had after that visit were answered in today's. Things like where were the stairs? (Hard if not impossible to tell since they were often wooden, and not attached to the walls at all. They were also often outside the main building rather than inside, making it more difficult yet to determine where they may have been.) What were the holes in the upper walls? (Where the wooden beams sat to support the upper floors, or if they went all the way through, water drains.) Where the ruts in Pompeii streets actual wagon wheel ruts, or something else? (Apparently, they were probably wagon wheel ruts that would have likely been filled in with clay or packed dirt.) What were the hollow columns near the portico pools? (Yeah, still no idea on that one. Some way to pull the water up?)
Okay, so I had a lot of questions, and many were answered. I spent around an hour wandering the streets of this weird, lovely, incredible city, staring at things that others likely ignored. I mean, if you know me at all, you know that my greatest joy is in working out the how, what, and why of history. That is exactly how I spent my afternoon. Win!
I took over 150 pictures, many of which were to make sure that I remembered the things that I learned as well as to reinforce that what looked like something actually was something. I'm not going to subject you lovely people to all of those things. But I wanted to show you what I saw.
A couple of notes: There are two pictures that show a building before it's been cleared of the rubble from the blast. I thought those were rather interesting so I'm showing them here. Additionally, there are a handful of pics at the end that were of Ercolano that I took while I waited for the train. They were lovely, so I wanted to share them, too. :)
Truly, I felt the dead walking with me.
If I had wanted a similar experience in Herculaneum, I would have been sadly disappointed. The city sits in the center of a thriving town called Portici, now referred to as Portici-Ercolano. You see, the difference between Pompeii and Herculaneum is that Herculaneum had been built on top of, while Pompeii had not. So when Herculaneum was found - in the middle of an already-established town - the dig site became part of the city. Just... deeper down.
I'd spent a lot of time in Pompeii framing my pictures to exclude anything modern or supportive. In Herculaneum, that was considerably harder. Many of my pictures show modern buildings all around it, or scaffolding, or any number of other bits of debris and detritus that come with it still being a work-site for archaeologists and construction workers surrounded by a living town. I think this may be what kept the ghosts at bay.
What I did learn at Herculaneum, however, was the how of living like a Roman. More importantly, as I noted in my post on Pompeii, many of the questions that I had after that visit were answered in today's. Things like where were the stairs? (Hard if not impossible to tell since they were often wooden, and not attached to the walls at all. They were also often outside the main building rather than inside, making it more difficult yet to determine where they may have been.) What were the holes in the upper walls? (Where the wooden beams sat to support the upper floors, or if they went all the way through, water drains.) Where the ruts in Pompeii streets actual wagon wheel ruts, or something else? (Apparently, they were probably wagon wheel ruts that would have likely been filled in with clay or packed dirt.) What were the hollow columns near the portico pools? (Yeah, still no idea on that one. Some way to pull the water up?)
Okay, so I had a lot of questions, and many were answered. I spent around an hour wandering the streets of this weird, lovely, incredible city, staring at things that others likely ignored. I mean, if you know me at all, you know that my greatest joy is in working out the how, what, and why of history. That is exactly how I spent my afternoon. Win!
I took over 150 pictures, many of which were to make sure that I remembered the things that I learned as well as to reinforce that what looked like something actually was something. I'm not going to subject you lovely people to all of those things. But I wanted to show you what I saw.
A couple of notes: There are two pictures that show a building before it's been cleared of the rubble from the blast. I thought those were rather interesting so I'm showing them here. Additionally, there are a handful of pics at the end that were of Ercolano that I took while I waited for the train. They were lovely, so I wanted to share them, too. :)
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