My internship at NN ended about 6 weeks ago. During those weeks, as some may have noticed, I went off the radar. Off the net. Partially off the grid. I have to admit to being a little burned out. I went into the internship right after defending my thesis – without so much as a long weekend away – and I think it caught up with me. I worked and I worked, on things fascinating and challenging, and when I was done, I ran away to Rome for 9 days.
Nine blissful days in the seat of European history. In the middle of all the art and the obscene amounts of food, my traveling companion and I took a day trip to Pompeii, the site of an ancient Roman city wiped out by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The toxic gases and feet upon feet of volcanic ash smothered the city and killed all of its unsuspecting residents almost instantaneously. The ash, reaching 6-7 meters, preserved life in Pompeii, froze it at an ancient moment of activity. Bread remained in the cooling ovens, oils stayed in earthenware jugs, mosaics and frescoes were sealed from centuries worth of elements, and people were preserved exactly as they were at the time of their death.
A beautiful day at Pompeii, with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background.
Yes, it’s completely morbid, but absolutely fascinating. When in the mid-1700s the time came to excavate the massive site (164 acres!), the archeologists took a genius yet painstaking approach to uncovering all that the volcanic ashes held – they felt for depressions in the earth, which suggested to them the presence of decomposed organic material – as in, bodies. They then carefully poured plaster into the voids and after it hardened, pulled out perfect casts of the residents of Pompeii, frozen in time at the time of their deaths, complete with final facial expressions and clothing folds.
Many bodies were left in the same place they were uncovered. I felt too guilty taking pictures of them there – it just seemed somehow… wrong. I did, however, take pictures of a dog in its final death throws, and of the body of a man, both kept in a holding chamber of millions of artifacts yet to be cataloged.
Can you see me reflected in the glass? Total photography pro, I am.
One thing I noticed was that the people were very small. It may be difficult to tell from the picture, but none of the bodies I saw were too far over 5’5” and could not have weighed more than 130 pounds, and that’s the men! Granted, current day Italians are not the largest folk on Earth, but Pompeiians seemed even smaller.
On an even creepier yet more fascinating note, bones and skulls peeked out from under the plaster of a number of the body casts. My to-do list for that mythical period of my life when I have loads time, now includes searching for any studies of those bones. I really want to know what information was collected from those bones, or even if anyone looked. Life expectancy, diet, food consistency (judging by the teeth). I wonder too, not related to the bones, how much Pompeiians knew about the large mountain just outside of their city. Did they know what volcanoes were? Did they know they were sitting on a time bomb? My guess is a resounding no, since hardly anyone got out. Does anyone know?
These finds offered an amazing glimpse into every day Roman life and to 250 years old excavation techniques. Walking around the massive place was absolutely breathtaking, voyeuristic, and wonderfully fun. I would highly recommend taking the trip to anyone, provided they are not too squeamish.
It sounds like a fascinating trip, Anna. Welcome back among us!
Re: shortness. In very old buildings (Middle Ages and thereabouts) the doorways are also really small, and clothes from those days wouldn’t even fit me (and you’ve seen how short I am – somewhere between 5’3" and 5’4"). This is true even in Holland, where the average height for women is now 5’7". Makes me wonder if we’re still getting taller and taller, as a species, or if it’s plateauing now, and why.
Heather – Thanks! It’s so nice to be back.
Eva – I am really curious about that as well! So true about small doors and clothing! All the beds in Russian palaces are so small! The tzars and tzarinas must have been teeny. I would have to curl up to fit. And then not eat. Is it our newly over-nutritious diet that’s responsible for growth or is it genetics? Are we, as humans, still evolving and getting bigger? Some bigger than others, admittedly.
I read about Pompeii as a little kid and I always wanted to go and see it for myself – kept quite a fascination with it for a long time.
And yes, people in the past were shorter – museums in the UK, in Serbia, in Sweden, wherever I went, the armors seemed so short for those Great Warriors of the past!
As far as I recall, prior to the AD 79 eruption Vesuvius had not erupted for several centuries, long enough for it to have passed from folk memory. Plus, the Roman idea of volcanoes was probably dominated by places like Etna, which fairly regularly erupts copious amounts of lava but is not particuarly dangerous, rather than much more episodic but much more destructive explosive eruptions characteristic of Vesuvius. So no, they didn’t know the dangers.
Of course, we know today what Vesuvius is capable of, and that hasn’t stopped several million people hunkering down inside the blast zone. Silly humans.
Anna, improved healthcare and diet have allowed many of us (in the western world, at least) to increase in height over time. Genes also play an important role – height is a highly hereditary trait. The Netherlands have proven to be an interesting site for evidence of epigentic effects as well. Starvation effects in pregnant women during the 2nd World War affected health and body condition in the offspring, which have continued across generations, there’s a summary of these effects here. I’m sure there’s plenty more info about this somewhere, but it’s dinnertime :)
That is really fascinating. I would love to see Pompeii for myself – crazy, to think what happened there. I wonder if they might have known something was up – after all, science still (as far as I know) doesn’t know if there were “warning” rumbles or anything from the volcano before the moment of eruption, or if, at least, how many precious moments they had to realize the end was coming. Though I think I saw a really interesting documentary about this sometime last year…
I remember reading in Pat Barker’s WWI novels (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road) that the British soldiers from working class backgrounds were usually very short (around 5 feet on average), by modern standards. This was almost certainly due to poor nutrition. The contrast with the average heights of officers from more privileged backgrounds was quite striking.
Pompeii is a fascinating place, we went there last March:
Part of the fun for me was using my Baedecker travel guide from 1905. Actually worked quite well for Pompeii, only the prices have changed a bit.
There is also the correlation between pastoral diet with milk products and height, with some summary here. I believe this is still/has once more become a little controversial, but I like the hypothesis a lot.
I read somewhere that there were only 2 people surviving the incident: 2 inmates whose prison cells were so badly ventilated that the noxious fumes didnt reach inside. I dont know how true it is.
PS: will we hear about the wonderful Italian food you had tried?
Re: your photography skills
Don’t tell anyone, but the right panel of the cover page of this document has a reflection of me and my camera in it.
Regarding the height and age… yes, people were smaller back in the days.* (diet and lack of nutrition as well as hard work early on and infections). Although the shortness of beds are not necessarily correlated to actual height, neither are the short door ways and small windows.
The first is part fashion, part beliefs; you slept sitting up for a long time (also known as “fear of drowning in your own bodily fluids” if you laid down). The latter is, at least in the north of Europe, a matter of keeping the warmth indoors and therefore having less possibility of letting the hot air escape out via the door ways.
*I’ve been told that there are differences between groups of people too. Like Heather said, something to do with milk drinking improving height and “largeness”. In the north of Europe milk drinking has been very important and a large part of the culture. I doubt that they knew that the milk would be an essential part of reciveing important vitamin D, that the rest of the world get in aboundance through the rays of the sun. In the north, we kind of lack that intensity ;)
the photos are beautiful and i agree, it must feel a bit strange to take photos of dead mummified people. Although i would like to go there some day… fascinating!
Martin – Gorgeous picture! Looks like you made it there on a gorgeous day. I wish I was there earlier in the afternoon – had a little mix-up with the train stations and had to walk from New Pompei. Not nearly as nice as ancient Pompeii, it turned out. I can’t imagine that much has changed there in the years. I know that restoration/excavation is ongoing, but I think a lot of it is about maintenance nowadays. The guide I had was a very approximate translation from Italian to English. It was a puzzle, figuring out what they were trying to say. Really entertaining.
Mehdi – I hadn’t heard of survivors, though I assumed there had to have been some. Will have to look for the prisoners now though. Can you imagine walking outside and seeing everyone dead? Assuming they could get out of their cells, of course… Huh. Italian food post coming soon, at the other place!
Cath – Oh my. That’s hilarious. It really is. I wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t point it out. Cool to have a photo on the cover of something very official looking though! I still get a kick out of things like that. Likely because I am 12 on the inside.
Åsa – that’s absolutely fascinating! I had no idea about bed length corresponding to superstition.