Fish Sauce Used to Date Pompeii Eruption

[Krystal Coenen]

Fish Sauce Used to Date Pompeii Eruption
Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News


 

Fateful Day | Video: Discovery Archaeology Sept. 29, 2008 -- Remains of rotten fish entrails have helped establish the precise dating of Pompeii's destruction, according to Italian researchers who have analyzed the town's last batch of garum, a pungent, fish-based seasoning.

Frozen in time by the catastrophic eruption that covered Pompeii and nearby towns nearly 2,000 years ago with nine to 20 feet of hot ash and pumice, the desiccated remains were found at the bottom of seven jars.

The find revealed that the last Pompeian garum was made entirely with bogues (known as boops boops), a Mediterranean fish species that abounded in the area in the summer months of July and early August.

"Analysis of their contents basically confirmed that Mount Vesuvius most likely erupted on 24 August 79 A.D., as reported by the Roman historian Pliny the Younger in his account on the eruption," Annamaria Ciarallo, director of Pompeii's Applied Research Laboratory told Discovery News.

The vessels were unearthed several years ago in the house of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, Pompeii's most famous garum producer.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/29/pompeii-fish-sauce.html

[Bianca]

Krystal,

Just a few sections below this one there is one called "ITALY & MAGNA GRAECIA"

Would you kindly add your articles on Pompeii there?

You'll also find threads on Pompeii and the other towns that were obliterated by the same
eruptions of Vesuvius, if you are interested.

Thanks,
b

[Krystal Coenen]

I sure will, Bianca, I am glad that you liked them! Vesuvius and Pompeiiu were interesting eruptions, I wish we knew more about the eruptions they had in prehistory.

[Bianca]

Thank you, Kristal!

Genavese has a thread on Vesuvius that you may interest you:


http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,7937.0.html



Then there is mine about Pompeii:

http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,10767.0.html


And on page 2 of ITALY AND MAGNA GRAECIA  you will find threads about the other towns that
Vesuvius obliterated in that same eruption:

HERCULANEUM
OPLONTIS
STABIAE


I hope you like them and keep contributing to that particular section.

b

[Krystal Coenen]

Hi Bianca,

Nice stuff. I actually don't come across too much about the eruptions (my academic work is basically about the empire itself, which is a huge topic), I was lucky in that I ran across a lot of Pompeii material at the same time. I can only imagine how it must have been for the residents of those cities to be buried by all that ash.