Too Much of A Good Thing...
Jul. 7th, 2011 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesIt's official. I'm all Romaned out.
The Boss and I spent much of the day immersed in editing not one but two papers about Roman or Romano-British subjects. Since both papers featured a bipartite pits, I think it's now fair to say that I've had a surfeit of the things just recently.
What's a bipartite pit, I hear you ask? Well, think in terms of a field oven made of two connecting pits, one of which is stone-lined, in which the Roman soldiers baked their Roman equivalents of pizza, foccacia, ciabatta, etc. They're commonly found in the vicinity of Roman military camps ( I understand that the term Roman 'temporary' camp has now been ditched...)
Aargh!!!!
So, without more ado, I'm going to do the obvious thing and take refuge in some Roman pretty stuff. I thought I 'd feature my favourite building in Herculaneum, before discovering that what I thought were photographs of my favourite building might in fact include images of two or even three buildings...
To the Black Drawing Room building, first of all, and a rather lovely wall:-
The Boss and I spent much of the day immersed in editing not one but two papers about Roman or Romano-British subjects. Since both papers featured a bipartite pits, I think it's now fair to say that I've had a surfeit of the things just recently.
What's a bipartite pit, I hear you ask? Well, think in terms of a field oven made of two connecting pits, one of which is stone-lined, in which the Roman soldiers baked their Roman equivalents of pizza, foccacia, ciabatta, etc. They're commonly found in the vicinity of Roman military camps ( I understand that the term Roman 'temporary' camp has now been ditched...)
Aargh!!!!
So, without more ado, I'm going to do the obvious thing and take refuge in some Roman pretty stuff. I thought I 'd feature my favourite building in Herculaneum, before discovering that what I thought were photographs of my favourite building might in fact include images of two or even three buildings...
To the Black Drawing Room building, first of all, and a rather lovely wall:-
For the rest of the post, I'll be featuring the Bicentenary House and the Beautiful Courtyard House. The Bicentenary House amazed me because it still had a wooden sliding door ( now charred,,,) in situ.
One of these houses also housed a more poignant exhibit: three charred intact skeletons stored in a glass case, left pretty much as they were found. The individuals in question were an older man, whose corpse lay close to two more bodies. These were a young man and young woman who were evidently holding onto one another as they died.
While the 'bodies' (or plaster-filled voids that were once bodies) at Pompeii were disturbing, these were just plain depressing. The inevitable flock of gawping onlookers to be found at Pompeii was absent here - instead, these unfortunates had very few visitors who were willing to linger long in their presence.
On a more cheerful note... Here's some views of the interiors:-
One of these houses also housed a more poignant exhibit: three charred intact skeletons stored in a glass case, left pretty much as they were found. The individuals in question were an older man, whose corpse lay close to two more bodies. These were a young man and young woman who were evidently holding onto one another as they died.
While the 'bodies' (or plaster-filled voids that were once bodies) at Pompeii were disturbing, these were just plain depressing. The inevitable flock of gawping onlookers to be found at Pompeii was absent here - instead, these unfortunates had very few visitors who were willing to linger long in their presence.
On a more cheerful note... Here's some views of the interiors:-
. 
And my favourite feature? These little dogs or lions which decorate the central opening (now covered, for obvious reasons!) which sits over the courtyard.
Maybe these Romans aren't so bad after all!!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 06:19 pm (UTC)Though from the perspective of someone who has never been to Italy, it all looks remarkably Georgian!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 07:33 am (UTC)It was intriguing, but part of me says hey! These are war graves. Imagine the reaction if someone went off to dig up Tyne Cot?
Seeing Otzi stripped of his clothes and his monumental dignity in death in Bolzano also upsset me in a way it is hard to describe.
This is probably why I'm a historian not an archaeologist!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 05:33 pm (UTC)What disturbs me more is that these poor sods get evicted from their 'homes' when their churchyards get cleared for future development.
I find Otzi disturbing. And Lindow Man, too. It's the same as the plaster casts from Pompeii. A snapshot into a tragic 'bad' (as opposed to a medieval 'good') death.