Pompeii: A City Frozen in Time庞贝
2010-11-11 13:10阅读：
Mon, Jun 14, 2010
庞贝古城
http://baike.baidu.com/view/31804.htm
庞贝城是亚平宁半岛西南角坎佩尼亚地区一座历史悠久的古城，西北离罗马约２４０公里，位于意大利南部那不勒斯附近，维苏威火山西南脚下１０公里处。西距风光绮丽的那不勒斯湾约２０公里，是一座背山面海的避暑胜地，始建于公元前６世纪，公元７９年毁于维苏威火山大爆发。庞贝在当时属于中小城镇，但由于被火山灰掩埋，街道房屋保存比较完整，从１７４８年起考古发掘持续至今，为了解古罗马社会生活和文化艺术提供了重要资料。
Pompeii was considered a city of pleasure.” Sophia, our guide,
smiles and lets the last word roll off her tongue. She’s not wrong
- in the last hour of my tour of this ancient Roman city, I’ve seen
more phallic symbols than you’d get in the latest issue of a lad’s
mag. From penises carved into the roadways pointing in the
direction of brothels to erotic frescoes of, er… leap frogging
activi
ties, the citizens of
Pompeii
knew how to have fun.
The Streets of Pompeii
In fact, hedonism was king here. Pompeii was an affluent city
filled with millionaires and mansions, a wealth built from its
amazingly fertile soil and its prime position as a sea port town.
There were over 700 shops and 500 houses, 10 spas and over 15,000
people living here. And the city knew how to hustle its
visitors.
The citizens here didn’t like to get their gowns dirty, so large
pedestrian stepping stones were placed across roadways for citizens
to hop over. But they were also built in a particular size, so as
only chariots built by the city could fit through- meaning all the
foreigners had to leave their chariots at the gate and hire the
city ones. It was kind of their version of an airport tax.
Frozen, But Not Forgotten
'Fast Food' Stop
But when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, the party came to an abrupt
end. The thriving Roman city and rowdy sea port was buried under
volcanic ash.
The city was frozen in time, and remained forgotten until around
1600, when the city was unearthed by a farmer digging for water who
instead found some funny marble statues. It wasn’t until the 1800s
that the city was properly excavated and the world realised the
treasure it held.
Speed up to 2010, and Pompeii is still a strong breadwinner,
attracting international visitors from around the world to this
small place in the South of Italy.
However, calling Pompeii a small place doesn’t do the city justice:
the first thing that will shock you about Pompeii is the size of
the city. It’s bigger than you expect, further away from Mt
Vesuvius than you imagined, and there’s more detail to the place
that you could argue there should be after 1900 years. There’s also
the fact that it remains also the most significant archaeological
discovery ever, with excavations still taking place all over the
site today.
The Hidden Remains
There is no way you can appreciate the city without seeing it with
a good guide. Sophia was amazing, taking us into the city through a
side entrance to avoid the crowds and showing us the best bits of
the city- a temple, theatre, a house, a temples and market. She
also took us into one of the best preserved buildings in Pompeii: a
brothel.
The Theatre
Being a sea town, brothels had plenty of business; while there were
ten temples in the city, there were more than 25 brothels operating
when Mt Vesuvius blew.
It’s hard not to get the giggles when you go inside. The bottom
floor is divided into seven small rooms, each with a sexual act
painted in a graphic fresco above it. To get around language
barriers, gentleman callers could simply point at one of the
pictures and they would then, ahem, proceed to the checkout.
A Human Story
On our tour, Sophia sticks to pointing out the things you’d easily
miss; the ancient graffiti scrawled across the walls, the white
marble cat’s eye tiles that would catch the light and illuminate
the walls of the homes at night, and the worn down groove near the
water fountain, where people used to place their hands to
drink.
There’s something about this groove in the stone that gets me more
than anything else in Pompeii. People would place their hand for
balance on the water trough, and the stone is so worn down, it’s
clear this action that must have been repeated for decades by
untold numbers of people before Vesuvius erupted.
Placing
my hand on the groove reminds me of the human story of
Pompeii.
And if you look for it, you can see the physical signs of it
wherever you go in Pompeii. In one house, there is a round hole
carved into the wall, about two metres up from the ground. The
theory widely believed by most archaeologists is that these holes
were made by slaves who were locked up by their fleeing masters.
The holes were made as they desperately tried to escape, tunnelling
through to the next property to try to save themselves. Like
everyone else in Pompeii, they didn’t make it, but their frantic
tunnelling is physical evidence of the desperation they must have
felt.
Our Guide Sophia and the Water
Trough
After two visits to Pompeii in two years, I’m still not satisfied.
There’s so much more to the city that I want to see, and I feel
like I’m still only beginning to understand the type of place it
is: a city of pleasure, a place of wealth and riches; but also
place where an incredible human drama played out on an epic
historical scale. Make sure you see it for yourself- it’s not to be
missed.
-Shaney Hudson
