Rome: Pompeii Lesson – DIGGING UP THE PAST
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
1. Show Video to establish history and events behind the destruction of Pompeii.
2. Divide class into 9 groups (usually about 3 people per group).
3. Set up centers around the classroom for the completion of the various tasks required for this
assignment.
4. Students should complete the assignment page to show their archaeological analysis of the
resources provided. Each resource will illustrate different aspects of Pompeii’s destruction that
should help academic researchers understand more about Pompeii and ancient Rome.
5. Review findings and analysis of resources at the end of the session.
Digging up Pompeii – An Archaeological Investigation
Visit the centers set up in our classroom to answer the following questions about Pompeii.
A Day in the City – A Game
Record your observations of Pompeii (a Roman city).
Pompeii: Its Discovery & Preservation
Why are ancient texts about Greece and Rome considered “enigmatic”?
Why are discoveries of “everyday” objects important? What information can they reveal?
Glass Vessels
Are you surprised to learn that glass items existed in the ancient world?
What conclusions about Roman Society can be made from these artifacts?
Wall Painting
What is depicted in the painting?
There have been many discoveries of paintings and artisan shops from ancient Rome. Why is this painting
considered a rare find?
Pliny’s Eyewitness Account
List 3 observations made by Pliny from the time of the Eruption.
Could You Survive?
According to your quiz results, would you have survived the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius?
What Happened Here?
Record observations of the eruption for each of the 5 senses. (Taste, Touch, Smell, Sound, Sight)
Human Destruction
Describe the “human tragedy” of Pompeii.
The Forum at Pompeii
What important role could the forum have played in Roman Society?
What do you notice about Roman architecture and planning of Pompeii?
Digging up Pompeii – An Archaeological Investigation
Complete the chart below. Choose 4 of the resources provided in class to summarize and analyse. Be
prepared to discuss your analysis with the class, and to defend your archaeological assumptions based
on historical facts. Your analysis can include, conclusions, legacy, or historical significance.
Resource
Description
Analysis
Pompeii: It’s Discovery and Preservation
By Dr. Salvatore Ciro Nappo
Pompeii as a Source
The discovery of Pompeii is of huge importance for our modern-day understanding of the ancient RomanItalic world - partly because the more public and monumental ruins left behind by Imperial Rome have
often been misleading.
Their ruination and destruction left crucial questions unanswered, and made it impossible in many ways
to gather a satisfactory understanding of the Roman world from them. Ancient Greek and Roman texts are
also often obscure and enigmatic, because the ancient writers naturally took for granted, and did not
explain, things that the modern reader cannot begin to guess at.
The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, by contrast, offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman
society in all its aspects. They have produced not only many treasures, but also many objects that are less
precious but extremely useful for the understanding of everyday life during the years of the Roman
empire. In the buildings of these towns - from the monumental to the most simple - the ancient world
appears in all its complexity, with great clarity.
The same principle applies to the ancient texts of classical times. These have Rome and other big cities as
their main point of reference, meaning that the history they speak of corresponds to the history of big
centres and cities - while the ancient Roman world was actually made up, above all, of a great number of
small towns and villages. In order to find out about the morality, culture, sense of state and religion for
the vast majority of people in the Roman-Italic world, it is to Pompeii and Herculaneum that we must
turn. It is here that we are most likely to find the truth about the society that made Rome 'caput mundi'.
Glass Vessels
This photograph illustrates a selection of glass vessels that have been discovered at Pompeii. The bowl
and saucepan-like vessels probably were used as part of a dinner service. The bottle and small jar
probably would have been storage vessels.
Glass vessels were relatively rare in antiquity, becoming more readily available with the development of
glass blowing towards the end of the first century BC. From that time, the increased speed of production
greatly increased the number of glass vessels in circulation.
A large number of glass vessels have been found at Pompeii, probably manufactured locally. Glass would
have been popular because it was cheap, resistant to heat and did not contaminate its contents with bad
tastes or smells. Its smooth, impermeable surface meant it could be cleaned easily, allowing it to be reused (which was not always possible with unglazed ceramic vessels).
Wall Painting: The Carpenter
This fresco from the House of the Vettii depicts a carpenter using a hammer and chisel to carve notches in
a piece of wood. Other woodworking tools lie on the ground.
This wall-painting is rare evidence of a craft that must have had an important role to play in the ancient
city (particularly so in Pompeii, after the devastating earthquake that shook the town in AD 62), yet which
normally leaves little trace in the archaeological record. In general, we know much more about crafts that
needed large-scale equipment - such as milling, baking, fulling (cleaning cloth), dying, and tanning.
Around 200 workshops of different kinds so far have been identified in Pompeii.
Pliny’s Eyewitness Account
Visit the site below.
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pliny/pliny.html
Click on the link to show the online documentary of Pliny, and listen to him describe the destruction of
Pompeii and the eruption of Vesuvius.
On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius unleashed its fury and
blew its top, literally. Nineteen hours after the eruption the
Roman resort towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were
destroyed, buried beneath tons of ash and rock. They remained
hidden for the next 1,700 years.
Few lived to tell the tale of that horrifying tragedy, but in the
16th century two letters came to light. At the time of the
eruption, a man known as Pliny the Younger was staying at the
home of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.
Like a modern-day storm chaser, the older Pliny set out for the heart of Pompeii at the first signs of the
volcano's stirring, to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event. He did not survive; however, his nephew, who
remained behind with his mother, did live. Pliny the Younger's letters to his friend Tacitus, a Roman
historian, recount the events of that terrifying day. This is the only known eyewitness account of the
eruption.
Could You Survive?
Visit the website below.
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/quiz/quiz.html
Complete the online quiz to see if you think you could have survived the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. What
were some of the signs that perhaps the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum ignored prior to the
eruption.
What Happened Here?
THE STORY OF CAIUS JULIUS POLYBIUS
By Rossella Lorenzi
A day in the life of one of Pompeii's residents is recreated in this fictional account based on research
findings.
Caius Julius Polybius woke up early that summer day in
A.D. 79. He was excited: workers were to arrive soon to
restore some rooms in his beautiful house. He was proud
of himself. A descendant of a former slave who in A.D
14 wrote and read the testament of the emperor
Augustus, he was now a wealthy and respected merchant.
He opened the front door and breathed deeply the cool
air of the morning. Like every day, he read the graffiti on
the facade of his house: "The mule drivers ask you to
elect Caius Julius Polybius as duovir." He smiled. At 65
he was finally enjoying an enviable social position,
holding the most important public office in Pompeii.
He turned and began to walk through his house, stopping to look at a fresco and admire his treasure.
Others in the city had more interesting pieces. How much he would have liked to have had the silver
collection he saw in the House of the Meander! Yet, he couldn't complain: on the table, lit by a bronze
lamp sculpture of young Apollo, were bronzes, vases, a beautiful embossed tray, and the best piece of the
collection, a Greek water container. The house was bustling. Women were already in the kitchen
preparing honey doughnuts and Julius' favorite dish, garum, a sauce made with marinated fish.
In the garden, a tortoise was sleeping under the fig tree, undisturbed by Julius' grandchild, who had just
put down a tree ladder and a basket full of figs. The earth was shaking lightly beneath people's feet, but
nobody cared. They were used to earthquakes, which occurred often in Pompeii.
But at noon a frightening roar made the 12 people in the house forget their lunch. Julius looked at Mount
Vesuvius. A huge cloud spewed out of the massive volcano, and fire reached for the sky. Soon white and
gray pumice began to fall from the column of smoke. A false night, darker and thicker than any night,
descended on the city.
There was panic. People cried in terror, rushing into the streets looking for shelter. Like everybody, Julius
and his family tried to escape, but a horse that had collapsed on the ground blocked their way. They
returned under a shower of burning rock, flaming cinders, fragments of lava and pumice. They rushed into
two rooms in the back of their house, away from the street.
They sat on the floor and waited for what seemed an eternity. In the darkness, they could hear groans of
the dying and shrieks of the terrified, noises from the mountain, the sound of roofs collapsing. It was
nothing compared to what was still to come. At 7 a.m. strong winds howled down the streets, bringing
sharp streams of ash, poisonous vapors and an unbearable temperature.
In Julius' garden, the tortoise withdrew into its shell for the last time.
Human Destruction at Pompeii
In AD 79 an eruption of Mount Vesuvius effectively wiped out the Roman town of Pompeii. Volcanic
ash and pumice rained down on the town for about 18 hours (to depths of 8-10 feet); many roofs collapsed
under the weight. This was followed by a nuée ardente, explosive superheated pyroclastic clouds of toxic
gas and debris, that came in six surges. Pompeii was completely covered and remained hidden for over
1600 years.
In 1748, Pompeii was rediscovered--not only its houses, but (eventually) some of its citizens. Although
only fragmentary skeletal remains were found there, hollow spaces within the hardened volcanic debris
revealed the forms of many deceased Romans. Suffocated by volcanic gasses and covered in ash and
debris, their bodies eventually decayed inside the hardening matter. This air space essentially formed a
mold, since the ash that had surrounded the person retained an imprint of the body. Excavators realized
this and filled the air pockets with plaster. The resulting "plaster mummies" poignantly capture the human
tragedy of Pompeii.
The Forum at Pompeii
An Arial view of the Forum ruins. 2/3 of the city have been excavated.
A Day in the City – A Game
Visit the site below.
http://www.humanities-interactive.org/ancient/pompeii/
Click on the link on the right side of the page “A Day in the City Game”. Review the map and play the
game. Record your observations and the kinds of things you can learn from this activity.