That's It From Herculaneum...

[endlessrarities]

It's the weekend, and I thought that since last Sunday's cycling extravaganza has been followed by five days of almost total inertia, I'd be raring to go on the bike today.  I don't know, perhaps it's the shock of being demoted to the mountain bike once more (the road bike needs new tyres fitted, and was lucky to get home safely, as it had developed an alarming bulge in the inner tube over the course of last week's return journey) but my twenty mile dander up the cycle track and back just about wiped me out...

I shall post some more pictures of the garden tomorrow, as I'm at last getting the nasturtiums planted out and transplanting the penstemmon, so it's beginning to get a bit brighter.  

In the meantime, I thought I'd take one last trip to Herculaneum. 

This is the gymnasium, only partially excavated:-
 

And spare a thought, if you will, for all those archaeologists who have been excavating this place through the centuries.  If you want some idea of what's involved, take a look at this:-

 

The charred timber in the centre of the picture is, I presume, a collapsed joist or beam, with archaeologically sensitive layers beneath.  Lying above is some in situ volcanic ash, the remains of the pyroclastic flow which engulfed the town all those centuries ago.  Now, imagine getting through all that (with or without modern power tools...) and managing to reach those roof timbers without causing any disturbance or destruction.  Not very easy, I'd say...

But the results have been spectaular.  Here's a gorgeous relief sculpture from the town, which unfortunately I know absolutely next to nothing about. It's one of four marble sculptures which feature gods and goddesses, and this one is my particular favourite: Athena/Minerva,:-

Yeah, I might not like the Romans very much, but this piece of Roman art is quite enough to make me go 'wow!  That's really something!!'

And yes, I'd be quite happy to hang it on my wall at home, thank you!!
 

Comments

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

You see, if I was a GOOD archaeologist, I'd carry a little portable scale everywhere so that you could get a real idea of what you were seeing.

It's an absolute pain in the neck, as far as faffing around's concerned. Take your average feature. The technique is as follows:- 1) Clean area around feature with trowel; 2) photograph feature; 3) excavate half of feature. Take care to collect the soil for sampling, and remember to differentiate any different contexts; 4) photograph excavated half-feature; 5) excavate 2nd half of feature (remembering to augment your existing samples, if necessary...); 5) clean and photograph fully excavated feature; 6) write up all contexts, including the cut of your posthole. In my world, this usually ends up with a text that rivals War and Peace...

Oh, and don't forget to label all your finds (if any) and double bag and label your samples.

Is it any wonder that my heart sinks whenever I actually find anything????