The gladiators’ barracks were in danger of collapsing. This is not about the Roman Empire from the first century, but about Pompeii in 2010. The city near Naples, which was buried under ash, pumice, mud and lava in AD 79 after an eruption of volcano Vesuvius.
Pompeii was rediscovered in 1748, a frozen picture of Roman life. Streets, market squares, temples, houses, household goods and works of art were virtually intact. In the following centuries there was plenty of digging for more, but that stopped – due to a lack of money – after the Second World War. Conservation took place and less sought after. Meanwhile, as many as four million tourists a year thundered over the cobblestones, and buildings threatened to collapse.
The European Union and the Italian government released 1.6 million euros to better protect the city – especially against water – and to investigate what could be found under a piece of never-excavated soil. That was in 2018. A French production company collected exactly such an amount to make a documentary of it. The first of two parts Pompeii Rising was broadcast on Canvas on Wednesday evening. The title is in English, but it is a Franco-Italian production, co-financed by Japanese, Belgian and American funds.
I didn’t expect much from it and counted on one of those historic ‘documentaries’ that Discovery Channel showers you with night after night. Lots of fanfare to turn scientific research into a smooth thriller. In Pompeii Rising you also see something of the time and patience it takes to dig up a (broken) pottery vase. More than a hundred archaeologists seem to have worked on that one-acre piece of land, probably not all at once, and you don’t see them all, the documentary makers zoom in on the three chief archaeologists and the director of the entire archaeological ‘park’ Pompeii. It is their joy that you share when one great find after another is made. The director respectfully feels the painting of a lararium, a small chapel in one of the two houses that are being uncovered piece by piece.
Skeleton
When a skeleton is found, an anthropologist arrives who knows it is a man in his forties and that he was probably limping. The man must have fled after the first shower of stones and was taken by surprise by the real danger that followed: the ‘pyroclastic flow’ of ash, gases, lava and stones. The mixture then solidified into a meter-thick layer of cement. An archaeobotanist examines the ashes in a bronze fire bowl to see if it was still in use before the lava came (yes). A paleographer deciphers the ‘graffiti’ on the wall by the front door. An A, B and unfinished C, stone carved into the stone wall. The handwriting of an inexperienced writer, she notes. Definitely a kid of the house.
Also read: In Pompeii, the DNA of victims was also preserved under the ashes
Sensational news from two thousand years ago: the volcano did not eruption on August 24, 79. That date came from an eyewitness account by Pliny the Younger (AD 62-113). That must be 24 November 79, because look, November 24 is also written on a wall, with charcoal. And how long does that last, at most seven days, not a year.
Just like in the history series The story of the Netherlands actors have been used to depict history. Without re-enactment I can also imagine what the city was like in the year before the disaster. The lot had been broken up, the sewers were repaired and many houses were doing work. In 62 Pompeii was hit by an earthquake. Most of the wealthy families had moved to the countryside, leaving their slaves behind to oversee the restoration of the house. Not much has changed in two thousand years.