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Science May Tell Of Roman Lives

By Adam Benson

Published: Monday, March 3, 2003

When the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were leveled after a massive volcanic eruption in 79 A.D., tremendous amounts of information as to how ancient Romans lived was lost for centuries, according to John Fischer.

Through the use of archeological, paleopathologial and forensic techniques, scientists have given historians the power to reconstruct a lost empire, he said.

Fischer, a professor of archeology at Wabash College, spoke to a group of about 40 Friday afternoon in the Christensen Center about what life was like for citizens of those two towns.

"If you were a Roman, the place you wanted to be was on the Bay of Naples...that was where it was happening," Fischer said.

Herculaneum and Pompeii were on either side of Mt. Vesuvius and when it erupted, both once- thriving towns became victims of its power.

"Whereas Pompeii was buried completely in ash, Herculaneum was buried by 100 feet of pyroclastic mudflow," Fischer said.

As the intense heat of the volcano's lava spread through the towns, it carbonized certain pieces of furniture, preserving them for future scientific research.

"The deaths of the inhabitants of Herculaneum was certainly sad, but it's left us with a treasure trove of information about what life was like for them," Fischer said.

Fischer also said that like Rome, Herculaneum was a center of activity, though the design and layout of the city was more Greek than Roman.

"Rome itself was laid out kind of by crazed animals, so there's really no set plan as to how the roads were laid out," he said.

However, Fischer said, Pompeii had its unique selling points as well, including a diverse population and an autonomous group of female citizens.

"One of the interesting things we've learned about provincial towns like Pompeii was that women had an existence of their own," Fischer said.

While sifting through Pompeii's rubble, scientists have also discovered a temple built to the Egyptian goddess Isis, proving that the town's population was disparate.

"Roman society was diverse and there were a lot of people in it," he said.

Fischer concluded his lecture with a set of slides that revealed what everyday life might have been like for Pompeii's denizens.

"Among the buildings we've uncovered in Pompeii, we've discovered that there were quite a few bordellos among them. These bordellos even had pictures that suggested a lot of things," he said.

Though collaborative efforts between scientists from varied fields have allowed the two cities to live on after their destruction, Fischer said just reading about them isn't enough.

"Sometimes we get information out of archeology that isn't available in texts," he said.

abenson@chronicle.utah.edu

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