HERCULANEUM - Another Victim of Vesuvius' Rage - 79AD

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                                                        H E R C U L A N E U M





Herculaneum (in modern Italian Ercolano) is an ancient Roman town, located in the territory of the current commune of Ercolano.

Its ruins can be found at the co-ordinates 40°48′21″N, 14°20′51″E, in the Italian region of Campania.

It is most famous for having been lost, along with Pompeii, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius beginning on August 24, 79 AD, which buried them in superheated pyroclastic material that has solidified into volcanic tuff.

Since the discovery of bones in 1981, some 150 skeletons have been found.

Herculaneum was a smaller town with a wealthier population than Pompeii at the time of its destruction.

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Ancient tradition connected Herculaneum with the name of the Greek hero Herakles (Hercules in
Latin and consequently Roman Mythology), an indication that the city was of Greek origin.

In fact, it seems that some forefathers of the Samnite tribes of the Italian mainland founded the first civilization on the site of Herculaneum at the end of the 6th century BC.

Soon after, the town came under Greek control and was used as a trading post because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples.

It is the Greeks who named the city Herculaneum.

In the 4th century BCE, Herculaneum again came under the domination of the Samnites. The city remained under Samnite control until it became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, when, having participated in the Social War ("war of the allies" against Rome), it was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Sulla.

After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the town of Herculaneum was buried under approximately 20 meters (50-60 feet) of lava, mud and ash. It lay hidden and nearly intact for more than 1600 years until it was accidentally discovered by some workers digging a well in 1709.

From there, the excavation process began but is still incomplete.

Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie on the approximate site of Herculaneum. Until 1969 the town of Ercolano was called Resina, and it changed its name to Ercolano, the Italian modernization of the ancient name in honour of the old city.

The inhabitants worshiped above all Hercules, who was believed to be the founder of both the town
and Mount Vesuvius. Other important deities worshiped include Venus, who was believed to be Hercules' lover, and Apollo.

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The eruption of 79 AD



The catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius occurred on the afternoon of August 24, 79 AD.

Because Vesuvius had been dormant for approximately 800 years, it was no longer even recognized
as a volcano.

Based on the archaeological excavations on the one hand and two letters of Pliny the Younger to
the Roman historian Tacitus on the other hand, the course of the eruption can be reconstructed.

At around 1 PM on August 24, Vesuvius began spewing ash and volcanic stone thousands of meters
into the sky. When it reached the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere, the top
of the cloud flattened leading Pliny to describe it to Tacitus as a stone pine tree.

The prevailing winds at the time blew towards the southeast which caused the volcanic material to
fall primarily on the city of Pompeii and the area surrounding it.

Since Herculaneum lay to the west of Vesuvius, it was only mildly affected by the first phase of the eruption. While the roofs in Pompeii collapsed under the weight of the falling debris, only a few centimeters of ash fell on Herculaneum causing little damage. This was enough to cause many of the inhabitants to flee, however.

It was long thought that nearly all of the inhabitants managed to escape because initial excavations revealed only a few skeletons.

It wasn't until 1982, when the excavations reached boat houses on the beach area, that this view changed. In 12 boat houses archaeologists discovered 250 skeletons huddled close together.

 
During the night, the column of volcanic debris which had risen into the stratosphere began falling back down onto Vesuvius. A pyroclastic flow formed that sent a mixture of 400°C (750°F) gas, ash, and rock racing down at 100 mph toward Herculaneum. At about 1 AM it reached the boat houses, where those waiting for rescue were killed instantly by the intense heat.

This flow and several more following it slowly filled the city's buildings from the bottom up, causing them little damage.

The amazingly good state of preservation of the structures and their contents is due to three factors:

By the time the wind changed and ash began to fall on Herculaneum, the structures were already filled with volcanic debris. Thus the roofs did not collapse.

The intense heat of the first pyroclastic flow carbonized the surface of organic materials and extracted the water from them.

The deep (up to 25 meters), dense tuff formed an airtight seal over Herculaneum for 1700 years

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Boat houses where archaeologists discovered 250 skeletons huddled close together.

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The skeleton called the "Ring Lady" unearthed in Herculaneum









Excavation


 
Excavation began at modern Ercolano in 1738.

The elaborate publication of Le Antichità di Ercolano ("The Antiquities of Herculaneum") under the patronage of the King of the Two Sicilies had an effect on incipient European Neoclassicism out of all proportion to its limited circulation; in the later 18th century, motifs from Herculaneum began to appear on stylish furnishings from decorative wall-paintings and tripod tables to perfume burners and teacups.

However, excavation ceased once the nearby town of Pompeii was discovered, which was significantly easier to excavate due to the reduced amount of debris covering the site (four meters as opposed to Herculaneum's twenty meters).

In the twentieth century, excavation once again resumed in the town.

However, many public and private buildings, including the forum complex, are yet to be excavated.






Skeletal remains



The pyroclastic flow instantly killed all residents who had not escaped before it struck.

In contrast to Pompeii, the remains of those killed at Herculaneum were not preserved in plaster casts.

In 1981, Italian public works employees, under the direction of Dr. Giuseppe Maggi, found bones at the Herculanium site while digging a drainage trench.

Italian officials, at Dr. Maggi's urging, called in Sara C. Bisel, a physical anthropologist from the United States, to oversee the excavation and study the bones. This research was funded with a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Until this discovery, there were few Roman skeletal remains available for academic study, as Ancient Romans regularly practiced cremation. Excavations in the port area of Herculaneum, which initially turned up more than 55 skeletons: 30 adult males, 13 adult females and 12 children. The skeletons were found on the seafront, where it is believed they had fled in an attempt to escape the volcanic eruption. This group includes the 'Ring Lady' (image above by National Geographic photographer Lou Mazzatenta), named for the rings on her fingers.

Through the chemical analysis of those remains, Dr. Bisel was able to gain greater insight into the health and nutrition of the Herculaneum population. Quantities of lead were found in some of the skeletons, which led to speculation of lead poisoning. The physical examination of the bones yielded additional information. The presence of scarring on the pelvis, for instance, gave some indication of the number of children a woman had borne.

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The buildings at the site are grouped in blocks (insulae), defined by the intersection of the
east-west (cardi) and north-south (decumani) streets.

Hence we have Insula II - Insula VII running anti-clockwise from Insula II. To the east are two additional blocks: Orientalis I (oI) and Orientalis II (oII). To the south of Orientalis I (oI) lies one additional group of buildings known as the 'Suburban District' (SD).

Individual buildings having their own entrance number. For example, the House of the Deer is
labelled (Ins IV, 3).





The House of Aristides (Ins II, 1)

The first building in insula II is the House of Aristides. The entrance opens directly onto the atrium, but the remainder of the house is not particularly well preserved due to damage caused by previous excavations. The lower floor was probably used for storage.



The House of Argus (Ins II, 2)

The second house in insula II got its name from a fresco of Argus and Io which once adorned a reception room off the large peristyle. The fresco is now sadly lost, but its name lives on. This building must have been one of the finer villas in Herculaneum. The discovery of the house in the late 1820s was notable because it was the first time a second floor had been unearthed in such detail. The excavation revealed a second floor balcony overlooking Cardo III. Also wooden shelving and cupboards. Sadly with the passing of time, these elements have now been lost.



The House of the Genius (Ins II, 3)

To the north of the House of Argus lies the House of the Genius. It has only been partially excavated but it appears to have been a spacious building. The house derives its name from the statue of a cupid that formed part of a candlestick. In the centre of the peristyle are the remains of a rectangular basin.



The House of the Alcove (Ins IV)

The house is actually two buildings joined together. As a consequence of this it is a mixture of plain
and simple rooms combined with some highly decorated ones.

The atrium is covered, so lacks the usual impluvium. It retains its original flooring of opus tesselatum and opus sectile. Off the atrium is a biclinium richly decorated with frescoes in the fourth style and a large triclinium which originally had a marble floor. A number of other rooms, one of which is the apsed alcove after which the house was named, can be reached via a hall which gets its light from a small courtyard.

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Fresco from the college,
depicting the myth of Hercules.








                                                       College of the Augustales


 
                                    Temple of the augustales or priests of the imperial cult





The Imperial Cult in ancient Rome was the worship of a few select emperors as gods once they were deceased; the only emperor to declare himself a god while still living was Domitian which caused outrage.

Making a god out of certain deceased emperors became a prominent element of religion in the Roman Empire during the Principate, to a point when some relatives of emperors were deified as well (with the word Divus preceding their names, or Diva if female). The cult soon spread over the whole extent of the Empire. It was only abandoned in the Dominate, after the emperor Constantine I started supporting Christianity.

The apotheosis of an Emperor was an essentially political act performed by the dead emperor's successor to reinforce the majesty of the imperial office, and, often quite effectively, to associate the current emperor with a well-regarded predecessor. Since it was a propaganda tool focused on leaders, the Roman imperial
cult can be considered a 'cult of personality'.

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It is usually deceased emperors who were deified.

However, it is not always the immediate predecessor. For instance, when Septimius Severus overthrew Didius Julianus to gain power in AD 193, he arranged the apotheosis of Pertinax, who had ruled before Julianus. This allowed Severus to present himself as the heir and successor to Pertinax, though the two were not related.

Apotheosis could also be applied to deceased members of the imperial family, such as emperors' wives like Livia or Faustina and emperor's son like Valerius Romulus. It was also an acceptable and critical part of the imperial cult to the senate (worship of living emperors being regarded with suspicion).

For royal females, acquiring the title of Augusta, only exceptionally granted, was generally regarded as the essential stepping stone to the status of divinity.

In an even rarer occasion, non-imperial Romans could be deified as well.

The last non-imperial human to be deified was Antinous, the young lover of Emperor Hadrian. The apotheosis of Antinous became the subject of numerous sculptures commissioned by Hadrian to commemorate the youth. Consequently, the image of Antinous is among the most recognizable
faces from antiquity. Somewhat uniquely, his cult was not so much one of propaganda than one
of genuine affection.

The process involved the creation of a waxen image of the emperor sitting in state, adorned with rich raiments and jewelry for a period of days, after which it would be burnt. On the pyre would be a hidden cage with an eagle in it. At the climax of the ceremony, this eagle would be released, and would be said to be carrying the emperor's soul to the gods.

Deification of Roman rulers had its origins in the worship of Romulus, who became known in his deified form as Quirinus

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Julius Cæsar allowed a statue of himself with the inscription,



         "Deo Invicto"

"To the unconquered god"



in 44 BC. In the same year, Cæsar declared himself dictator for life.

Julius Cæsar's nephew and adopted son, Augustus Cæsar constructed a temple built in Rome dedicated to Divus Julius, the "divine", or "deified" Julius. This was an act that consolidated Augustus' power, since he was the (adopted) son of the deified Julius, he became titled divi filius—son of a god.

In the mythological developments, an imperial house, gens Julia, was portrayed as the descendants of the hero Iulus, Venus and Jupiter. Virgil, befriended to Augustus, wrote the Aeneid. The first book of that poem contains a passage where Jove is portrayed as unfolding his decisions to Venus, containing these words:



Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar,
imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,--
Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.

Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum,
accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis.



   Of Trojan stock illustriously sprung,
lo, Caesar comes! whose power the ocean bounds,
whose fame, the skies. He shall receive the name
Iulus nobly bore, great Julius, he.

Him to the skies, in Orient trophies dress,
thou shalt with smiles receive; and he, like us,
shall hear at his own shrines the suppliant vow.

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By sanctioning the cult of his adopted father, Augustus also prepared his own and set the pattern for himself and future emperors. He received similar honors even while still alive from the Senate. At the request of the senators, Augustus and Tiberius had each allowed a single temple to be erected in their honor during their respective lifetimes: such a temple would, however, not only contain a statue of the ruling emperor, that could be venerated in a god-like fashion, but the temples were also dedicated to the Roman people (the "City of Rome" in Augustus' case; the "senate" in Tiberius' case). Both temples were situated in the Asian part of the Roman Empire:



Augustus' temple was situated in Pergamon;

Pressed from several sides, Tiberius would not allow any other temple or statue in his honor, than a single one in Asia, following his predecessor's example. Tiberius declared before the senate he'd rather be remembered for his acts than by stone, but consented in 26 to the senate choosing Smyrna out of eleven candidate-cities to erect "his" temple.

On the contrary, other emperors were less subtle in their attempts to aggrandize themselves. Tiberius's successor Caligula, on his own instigation, constructed several temples and statues dedicated to himself, all of which were destroyed immediately after his death. His successor Claudius appears to have allowed a single temple in his honor, following Augustus' and Tiberius' example again, this time in Britain, after his successful conquest there.

Many emperors had personal guardian gods--especially popular were Hercules, Jupiter and Sol Invictus--which supposedly protected and guided them, but they generally avoided claiming the status of a deity in their own lives, even if some critics insisted they should. However, some worked hard to merge their own identity with those of their patron gods. Nero, for instance, maintained that he was of a miraculous and divine birth and erected the Colossus of Sol Invictus (sun-god) with his own facial features.

Most often, deceased emperors were the subject of worship during this period--at least, the ones who did not become so unpopular with their subjects that the populace considered their assassination a relief. Most emperors benefited from a speedy deification of their predecessor: if that predecessor was a close relative (even if only by adoption), that meant that the new emperor could count on a "near to deified" status of being a divi filius, without needing to be too presumptuous regarding his own godhead status. According to Suetonius, the last words of Vespasian were puto deus fio ("I think I'm turning into a god").

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After Hadrian, the power of the emperors had become so absolute and consolidated that the later emperors could claim divinity during their own lives. During the persecution of Christians that took place in the Roman Empire, the imperial cult became an important aspect of that persecution. To the extent that participation in the imperial cult became a loyalty test, the imperial cult was a particularly aggressive sort of civil religion.

Loyal citizens of the Empire were expected to make a periodic offering of incense to the genius, or tutelary spirit, of the Emperor, and upon doing so they received a certificate that they had in fact demonstrated their loyalty by sacrificing. Christians, of course, refused to worship the Emperor, considering the cult to be idolatry. The sacrifice was used as a law enforcement tool to ferret them out.

The imperial cult was abandoned when Constantine I—who had adopted the Christian religion—became Emperor. From then on high religious claims by Roman and Byzantine emperors, no longer stated in terms of godhead of the Emperors, but in terms of challenging the religious authority of the highest non-secular leaders of the Church, would be indicated as Caesaropapism.

Those who were deified were referred to with the word divus (Latin, noun, for "the divine/deified one"; feminine diva, plural divi/divae) before their names. Thus, Claudius was called divus Claudius. This word is often rendered as 'god' (i.e., "Claudius the god") but that is something of an over-translation, as Latin had a separate and distinct word for gods (deus). A more accurate translation might be 'divine' (i.e., "the divine Claudius") or 'deified', a somewhat softer formulation that Roman intellectuals could comfortably understand as metaphorical.

As time passed, this honour became more and more automatically associated with dead emperors,
to the extent that by the time of the Dominate,it might just as well be understood as meaning
"deceased". The fact that 'divus' had lost much of whatever truly religious meaning it had is made
clear by the fact that it was used with names of early Christian emperors after their deaths, even
after Constantine had technically abolished the practice of deification of emperors.

"Divus Constantinus", therefore meant simply "the late Constantinus".



In literature

As apotheosis became a part of Roman political life in the late Republic and early Empire, it began to be treated in literary contexts. In the Aeneid, Virgil depicts Aeneas' deification, saying he will be taken up to the stars of Heaven, and mentions Caesar's apotheosis. Ovid also describes Caesar's apotheosis in book XV of Metamorphoses and looks forward to the glorification of Octavian.[citation needed]

Other Romans ridiculed the notion that a Roman emperor was to be considered a living god, or would even make fun of the deification of an emperor after his death: Lucius Annaeus Seneca parodied the notion of apotheosis in his only known satire The Pumpkinification of Claudius, in which notoriously clumsy and ill-spoken Claudius is transformed not into a god but into a pumpkin, revealing an irreverence towards the idea of a ruler cult, at least among Rome's educated classes. In fact, bitter sarcasm was already effected at the Emperor's funeral in 54.

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Plan of Villa drawn by Weber showing the ancient structures and the tunnels that were made in order to recover the works of art








                                                             Villa of the Papyri






The Villa of the Papyri is a private house in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum (current comune of Ercolano).

Situated north-west of the township, the residence sits half way up the slope of the volcano Vesuvius without other buildings to obstruct the view.

The abode was owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.

In AD 79, the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Herculaneum with some 30 m of volcanic ash over the site.

Its remains were first excavated in the years between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of underground tunnels.

Its name derives from the discovery of a library in the house containing 1,785 carbonized papyrus scrolls.



wikipedia.com

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[Kara Sundstrom]

Herculaneum's glories shown off
The Associated Press
Published: November 28, 2008

 

NAPLES, Italy: Herculaneum, ignored by many a Pompeii-bound tourist as that other city the erupting volcano Mount Vesuvius "froze" in ancient time, is showing off its glories, including some never before seen by the public.

While visitors pour into the sprawling ruins of ancient Pompeii — 2.5 million came last year _- archaeologists over the years have been quietly extracting remnants of the much-less visited Herculaneum, and what marvelous remnants they have plucked from that town where affluent ancient Romans savored sea views from well-appointed villas.

The exhibit "Herculaneum, three centuries of discoveries" brings together for the first time most of all the important statuary dug out of the bowels of the town, from the first underground exploratory tunnels during Bourbon King Charles' reign in the early 18th century, to the more scientific digs of the last couple of decades.

Running through April 13 at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the show's delights range from exquisite tiny bronzes to colossal marble statues.

Many pieces are from the aristocratic Villa of the Papyri, which takes its name from the library of papyrus scrolls found in the partially excavated residence. Among the show's stars are a pair of bronze athletes from the villa. The athletes are poised to sprint in an eternal wait for the starting signal.

Today in Europe
As Russia rises, a test for BerlinAngela Merkel wins re-election as head of Germany's Christian DemocratsOutrage in Britain over lawmaker's arrestBecause of the way Herculaneum disappeared during Mount Vesuvius' furious eruption of 79 A.D. — buried under a kind of massive hot mud pack which eventually hardened — some pieces of furniture and other wooden household objects as well as clothing survived.

Displayed for the first time to the public is a small selection of fabric fragments. In summer 2007, during excavations near a thermal baths complex in Herculaneum, archaeologists found the remains of fabric near a leather bag.

"We understood we had something very fragile, almost impalpable in our hands," said Maria Paola Guidobaldi, director of Herculaneum excavations. "It was a miracle that the restorers, with great patience, succeeded in the laboratory in isolating the threads from this pulpy mass," Guidobaldi, who is also a curator of the show, said in a telephone interview.

Near the end of the exhibit is a startling collection of plaster casts of the skeletons of men, women and children, found on what was Herculaneum's ancient beach. The ancients were likely hoping for salvation somehow to come from the sea when death caught them.

The beach dig is one of the more recent excavations in Herculaneum's on and off history of exploration. Less than half of the ancient city has been excavated. Some of its most important sections, including civic and religious buildings in the forum, lie under the modern town, which teems with liveliness typical of the towns defying the active volcano today.

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On the Net:

http://www.pompeiisites.org

 
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/28/europe/EU-Italy-Herculaneums-Moment.php