Pompei: a contrarian view

Given my recent visit, I was definitely interested when I saw a link to Mary Beard’s article What Might Have Happened Upstairs in the London Review of Books. The article uses a book review as the launching pad for a discussion of current academic thinking on Pompei, though Beard also comments favorably on the book. The view is very different from what you get at Pompei itself, which I suppose isn’t too surprising given the touristy, money making environment.

Instead, this article makes the major point that Vesuvius had been smoking and bubbling for several weeks prior to exploding and so most of the folks with half a brain or more had left by the time of the big bang. The other point not mentioned on site, but in this article, is that from the time the lava cooled until the official beginning, 250 years ago, of the area’s excavation it was constantly being searched by looters for goods they could haul off and sell. One can imagine how little was left for the excavators to find.