Resurrecting Pompeii (18 page)

Whatever the case, it does appear that a number of people did manage to escape as demonstrated by the literature and implied by the comparatively small number of skeletons that have been found in a town of this size.
¹⁷⁴
It should be borne in mind that the majority of excavations to date have been within the walls of Pompeii and it is possible that many victims are yet to be found outside Pompeii.
¹⁷⁵

Though instructive when used to establish the possible causes of death, recent events like the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980 are probably of limited value for gaining an insight into the types of people who would have been more likely to perish. The Mt St Helens eruption apparently differed from that of Vesuvius in
_AD
79 in that there was sufficient warning to enable most of the inhabitants to be evacuated before the lethal phase. Victims included thrill seekers and journalists.
¹⁷⁶
It is possible that there were some equivalent individuals in the
_AD
79 eruption, the most likely historical candidate being the Elder Pliny. There is no doubt, however, that such victims were in the minority. Other recent eruptions, such as Taal, Philippines (1965) Galunggung, Indonesia, Rabaul, Papua New Guinea (1983–85), El Chichón, Mexico (1982), Rabaul (1994) and Parícutin, Mexico (1943), cannot be used to reconstruct the behaviour of the Pompeians, though they do give some indication of the range of possible behavioural responses to such a disaster.
¹⁷⁷

Another issue that is of relevance to the composition of the skeletal sample is whether there were post-eruption visits to the site. This also potentially challenges the concept of the ‘Pompeii Premise’. There has been considerable debate as to whether the site was completely sealed after the eruption as a ‘frozen moment’ or if it were possible for people to return to Pompeii to collect valuables.
¹⁷⁹
This activity could have been dangerous as excavation has been said to release pockets of poisonous gas, known as
mofeta
, that were trapped in the volcanic deposit during the course of the eruption.
¹⁸⁰
Skeletons of individuals who perished in this way, either in the period after the eruption or in the eighteenth century, when it was difficult to control unauthorized excavation, could present a source of bias to the sample. The traditional view is that Pompeii, unlike Herculaneum, which was sealed in a solid deposit, was visited shortly after the eruption by both looters and residents who wished to salvage what remained of their belongings. This notion was first proposed in the 1760s by Winckelmann and has since received wide support.
¹⁸¹

The possibility of such an occurrence is contingent on the fact that it was possible to identify at least part of the site after the volcanic event. It has often been claimed that the upper portions of walls were visible.
¹⁸²
Certain scholars, however, have argued that it would not have been likely that residents or looters could have easily re-located the site, let alone specific houses, after the eruption as volcanic deposits of tephra compact by about 50 per cent in the first two weeks after an eruption.
¹⁸³
It appears that knowledge of the exact location of Pompeii was lost some time after the eruption, though the collective memory of an ancient site in the region was commemorated by the name
Civita
for the general area.
¹⁸⁴

The lack of bronze statuary and much of the marble in the forum have been cited as archaeological evidence for post-eruption looting and salvage work.
¹⁸⁵
It should be noted, however, that the paucity of certain classes of evidence has been questioned. Large quantities of marble, for example, were actually found in the forum, though there were problems both with documentation and robbery at the time of excavation.
¹⁸⁶
It has been suggested that looting may not have been a major post-eruption activity, on the basis of information from contemporary eruptions, which revealed no escalation of the crime rate after volcanic disasters.
¹⁸⁷

Reports of mixed stratigraphy and the discovery of holes in walls by the excavators have often been invoked as evidence for people returning to the site in antiquity.
¹⁸⁸
Some of this can be explained in terms of undocumented eighteenth-century excavation.
¹⁸⁹
Finds, including ancient lamps that have been dated to periods after the
_AD
79 eruption
¹⁹⁰
and the skeletal remains with a lantern and pick that are now in room 19 of the
Casa del Menandro
, have also been used as evidence of post-eruption visits to the site.
¹⁹¹
While the accuracy of the dates for the lamps cannot be questioned, the use of these skeletal finds as evidence of post-eruption intruders requires some comment. The skeletal group under discussion was not originally found either with a pick or in this context (see Chapter 1). Further, the skeletal evidence does not suggest looters. Three of the individuals in this group were identified as children equivalent in development to juveniles under the age of six in a modern European population.
¹⁹²
The three skeletons that were originally found in this room in association with the abovementioned implements were also reported to include juvenile remains, though they were not available for examination. In addition, three holes can be observed in the south and west walls of this room. These have also been interpreted as evidence of looting, though it is apparent that they were cut from inside the room, probably by the three victims in an attempt to escape after the normal exits were blocked by the build-up of ash and lapilli.
¹⁹³
Similar arguments have been used to explain the presence of holes in the walls of other houses.
¹⁹⁴

Other skeletal finds from the upper strata of Pompeii, especially the northwest quarter, have also been interpreted as looters.
¹⁹⁵
Many of these were found with associated artefacts, such as coins or jewellery. Richardson considered that these individuals were clearly pillagers and not victims fleeing the eruption with their valuables, though he did not present any evidence to substantiate this claim.

These examples demonstrate the complexity associated with the interpretation of evidence for post-eruption visits to the site. Nonetheless, there is clear evidence that Pompeii was visited for some period after the eruption. Along with the lamps mentioned above, post-eruption salvaging can be seen, for example, in the form of holes in the north and south walls of Room c in the
Casa del Principe di Napoli
, along with disarticulated skeletal remains which had apparently been disrupted during exploration some time after the death and decomposition of the victims.
¹⁹⁶
While one cannot discount the possibility of post-eruption skeletons in the Pompeian collection, there are no known unequivocal discoveries of ancient skeletons that do not date to the initial destruction. Whatever the case, it is unlikely that the contamination rate would be significant.

In conclusion, the evidence is such that it probably will never be possible to determine exactly what happened in the final period of occupation in Pompeii. Similarly, precise details about the people who became victims, or were able to escape, is unlikely to be established. It is clear that the site of Pompeii is not simply a sealed deposit of a thriving town, stopped in its tracks by the
_AD
79 eruption. While the
_AD
62 earthquake did not result in complete abandonment of the site as evidenced by rebuilding projects, it is clear that some changes did occur as suggested by Seneca’s writings and other archaeological evidence
.
It is impossible to assess the degree of change or whether the nature of the population was altered, though it is likely that the population was dynamic in the last 17 years of Pompeii’s history.

Most of the Pompeian human skeletal remains have been stored in two buildings, which date to the original occupation of the site. The tradition of removing skeletons after excavation and storing the co-mingled remains in a building on site, designated as a ‘bone house’, can be traced back, at least, to the second half of the nineteenth century.
¹
Nonetheless, some skeletons and a number of casts are still
in situ
, especially in houses excavated from the time of the directorship of Maiuri and beyond.

The environment in which the bones are stored is as romantic as the novels that have served to popularize the site. The majority of the human skeletons have been stored in an ancient bath building, the
Terme del Sarno
(VII, ii, 17). This structure is situated to the south of the Forum. The Sarno Bath complex was first used as a repository for ancient bones and casts in the early 1930s when modern stone walls were incorporated into the structure and iron bars were inserted to deny access through doors and windows. It was also used to house fragments of marble statues, terracottas, carbonized rope, baskets and fishing nets as well as ferrous implements. The objects deposited in this building are largely unprovenanced but were apparently brought to the baths from all over Pompeii.
²

When I commenced work on this project, the road to the Sarno Baths was not accessible to tourists and was overgrown with wild fennel. Entering the Sarno Baths was like being immersed in a classic B grade movie. The modern iron gates at the entrance to the baths had rusted shut and had to be forced open by guards. The entrance was completely obscured by brambles that had to be hacked away with a machete. Access was obtained via a dimly lit barrel-vaulted sloping passageway.

The first level down contained a side passage with two service rooms. One of these had been reused as a store for unprovenanced fragments of marble sculptures, table tops and broken sundials. The other room housed horse skeletons that had been rearticulated for long-since dismantled displays. The first room was so dark that one’s eyes could not adapt and it could only be viewed by torchlight. Shining a torch into the second room made the shadows of the horse skeletons leap up the wall. When the rooms were illuminated, bats would fly out into the faces of unsuspecting visitors who stood too near the doorway.

The next level down was reached by a crumbling set of stairs. This level contained what has been interpreted as the women’s baths.
³
On the left was the pool for the
frigidarium
, which was adorned with paintings of pygmies in Nilotic scenes. Above this was a lunette with a painted stucco of the personification of the River Sarno. To the right were the
tepidarium
,
caldarium
and
praefurnium
. The ceilings are covered with stucco and vibrant paintings. Mounds of bones and the remains of casts that could no longer be displayed due to dismemberment of limbs littered the floors of these rooms, along with the remains of portions of marble statues, such as the odd disembodied foot. The photograph of the bones in the Sarno Baths (Figure 5.1) was taken some months after cleaning commenced, when the bone piles had begun to diminish in size.

The human bones stored in this building had been indiscriminately piled along with the bones of other animals, like horses, sheep, goats and dogs. Over time, the skeletons have become disarticulated and it is almost impossible to reassign bones to specific individuals, except in the case of certain pathological changes (Chapter 8).

In the late 1970s, a small collection of human skeletal material was removed from the Sarno Baths for study.
⁴
This collection is stored by bone type, including femur, tibia, humerus and skull. It is housed in another ancient bath house, the
Terme Femminile del Foro
(VII, v, 2/8/24) This building also contains boxes of mixed human and non-human bones that were reburied after excavation in the nineteenth century and subsequently reexcavated in the second half of the twentieth century.
⁵
Most of this material is unlabelled.

The Sarno and Forum Bath buildings house their own ecosystems, often directly associated with the presence of skeletal remains. The main animal life in the
Terme Femminile del Foro
consisted of rats and mice. Due to the comparative isolation of the
Terme del Sarno
and its increased exposure to the elements, the range of observed fauna was far more extensive. There were various rodents, cats, bats, snakes, spiders and various insects, such as carpenter bees and beetles. Birds had been nesting in the bones for many years; the inside of a cranium apparently formed an excellent basis for a nest. In a number of cases it was necessary to remove over a centimetre of bird lime from bones before they could be examined. Occasionally, a large green lizard would unexpectedly drop off the ceiling onto my workbooks.

The seduction of scholarship by popular culture was one of the key factors that contributed to the neglect of Pompeian skeletal material as an archaeological resource. As already noted, Pompeian skeletal remains were not initially seen to have any research potential. They served merely as props for the creation of visual or verbal vignettes for visiting dignitaries or literary