Herculaneum, a Roman City Frozen in Time

Scavi di Ercolano, entrance to the excavations of Herculaneum

Naples, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and also one of the largest, of which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said “see Naples and die,” is truly amazing.  Founded in 470 BC by Greek traders, called Nea-Polis meaning “new city” in Greek, Naples has been ruled by Romans, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, Angevin French, Aragonese, and Bourbons, until Garibaldi united Italy in 1860.  Our short walk in the old part of Naples that we could reach on foot from the harbor gave us the briefest of tastes of this magnificent history.  I so wanted to break away from the tour and visit Cumae, the mysterious site of the Cave of the Sybil, the prophetess of the Roman kings and the site of the entrance to the Underworld in Roman mythology, which was a mere 15 miles west of Naples,  perhaps another time…

Soon we were back on the cruise ship, and for the last time we gathered in the auditorium to join our Herculaneum tour group.   Pompeii and Herculaneum -- the cities of Vesuvius, alive in my imagination for years. The destruction and burial of these two Roman cities on 24 August 79 AD by the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius is so well known, and has been the subject of TV movies and travelling museum exhibits.  But however much one has read, or how many movies seen, or museums visited, there is no substitute for being there.  And how real it felt, seeing Vesuvius looming over the city, a mere 10 miles away, double-peaked now after many explosions, with the scars of lava flows down the sides.

Herculaneum, with the volcano Mt Vesuvius in the distance

 

Herculaneum paved street.  Note depth the city had been buried in 79 AD.

After a 20 minute ride, the tour bus pulled into a non-descript parking lot at the edge of a non-descript town, no sign of ancient city ruins that I could see.  However, once we entered the gate to the “Scavi di Ercolano” and looked down into the excavation area about 30 ft. below street level, we beheld the ancient city of Herculaneum.  Called by some the Beverly Hills of Ancient Rome, it was the resort city of the wealthy Romans, of large two-storey homes decorated with magnificent frescoes, mosaics, and peristyle gardens, of public baths, a huge 25,000 seat theatre, boat docks, and most telling, paved streets free of the wheel-ruts that one sees in Pompeii, a more commercial and industrial city.

Herculaneum two-storey house, with some wall decorations still intact

Elegant home with a peristyle garden

 

There is a theatre buried within this wall of volcanic soil

Herculaneum was re-discovered in 1709 by some workmen digging a foundation for a nobleman’s villa, and for years after the site was subjected to rampant tunneling and pilfering of marble statues and bronze artifacts.  Systematic exploration and preservation only starting in the late 19^th century, hampered by the fact the modern town of Risina was built on the soil above the ruins.  Even now, most of Herculaneum is entombed beneath Resina (renamed Ercolano) including the theatre.  Today Herculaneum is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Herculaneum fast-food joint, the large jars held the food kept warm from the nearby furnace

 

Spectacular mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite on the wall

 

Lararium for the household gods

Dr G in the atrium of the Samnite House

 

Labrum (wash basin) in the baths

Our tour guide walked us through bakeries, cereal shops the thermal baths, aristocratic homes, and showed us a corner shop that sold hot food and beverages from large terracotta jars, a sort of 2,000 year old fast food joint.  We saw one house with a mosaic floor that had buckled from the hot pyroclastic material that buried it.  We saw charred timbers in the walls of another building, amazingly preserved.  We saw the boat houses on what had been the sea shore, where hundreds of skeletons were discovered in the 1800’s, dispelling the common belief up to that time, that most of the citizens had escaped the volcanic eruption.

The boat houses, where hundreds of skeletons were discovered, victims of the volcano

Tired, parched, and foot-sore, we climbed back on the tour bus, almost solemn with the realization of what happened here 1,934 years ago.  To the east double-peaked Vesuvius served as a reminder of the awful forces of Nature, and how easily a paradise can be swept away.

We four explorers spent our last evening together, the cruise completed.  After dinner and an evening nightcap, we bade each other farewell, with L & G catching a flight back home, and C and I off to spend three days in Rome.  Then I planned to continue my travels to Zurich while C caught a return flight.  Our Mediterranean / Greek Island cruise dream was over -- but what a wonderful time we all had!

Luggage lined up on the dock at the port of  Civitavecchia, with buses ready to transport us back to the Rome airport.  Cruise over   *SIGH*

To be continued…