Our Opinion

In our opinion, Pompeii city has been preserved very well. All the objects buried beneath Pompeii were remarkably well-preserved for almost two thousand years. The site had a wealth of sources and evidence for analysis, giving remarkable detail into the lives of the Pompeiians.


Weathering, erosion, light exposure, water damage, poor methods of excavation and reconstruction, introduced plants and animals, tourism, vandalism and theft have all damaged the site in some way. Two-thirds of the city has been excavated, but the remnants of the city are rapidly deteriorating. Today, funding is mostly directed into conservation of the site; however, due to the expanse of Pompeii and the scale of the problems, this is inadequate in halting the slow decay of the materials.

How to preserve it?

The bodies were covered in ash and as they degraded they left body shaped holes. So the first people to investigate the sites pour plaster of paris into the holes and when it hardened, they chipped around the plaster and had complete replicas of the body of the person or people who had died there. They have kept the bones intact of the bodies that they have discovered. They also have preserved the scrolls that they have found that were burned. At the present time, we cannot open these scrolls without damaging them but we are preserving them in the hope that some day we will find a way to open them and be able to read them. The other arefacts like mosaics and jugs and stuff like that are are uncovered and cleaned professionally and are being left at the sites.

Myths and Legends

The dogs of ancient Pompeii were pets and guard dogs, as dogs are now. They were also protected by law from ill-treatment, as dogs are now. It's supposed that those dogs who were unchained, sensing the geological unrest, fled the city in advance of the eruption. Those who were chained perished along with their owners.
"For days before the eruption, there were warning signs. The ground shook, wells and springs dried up and no birds sang. But the citizens of Pompeii just went about their business - only the dogs took heed. With their acute senses, they could feel the tremors long before the humans."
"They walked for a day and a night without rest into the hot summer breeze, keeping Vesuvius downwind. On the second day, tired and thirsty, they were at the foot of a range of low hills. The sun was high in the sky. The wind had died down and all erupted from the top of Mount Vesuvius, rising a hundred thousand feet into the air."
The dogs who live there now are strays - dusty, scruffy, mutts, always on the lookout was quiet. Suddenly, the eerie silence was shattered by a tremendous explosion. A gigantic column of smoke for a handout in the form of a sandwich or a slice of pizza - but they all have a special dignity. They too are protected in a way unusual for stray dogs - the guides to the ruins of Pompeii care for them by pooling money to pay for food.
Few people who have ever toured Pompeii have failed to be enchanted by the dogs. One in particular took the authors' attention as they sat in a restaurant after touring the ruins. He was black, with a white patch on his chest and he had a great begging act. He approached each table with a sad expression and wagged his tail very slowly. Some diners ignored him, some gave him a tidbit from their lunch for which his gratitude was visible. Once in a while a waiter would chase him off. He'd wait patiently around a corner until the waiter was out of sight, then move on to a new table with the same brilliantly calculated performance.
The following notes are attached to various tourists' web sites:
CAVE CANEM - many houses have such mosaics. There must have been many dogs in ancient Pompeii.
Dogs remain very much a part of this city. They are strays or might have been abandoned and seem to rely on tourists for handouts. Most of the ones we encountered were sleeping in the shade. A few follow people around in the hope that they will receive food. One was waiting outside a snack shop for anyone gullible enough to let his guard down and hold a snack too low to the ground.
My impression of the dogs on each of the visits I've made to Pompeii is that they're happy, friendly and generally healthy and certainly don't look undernourished. Generous tourists share sandwiches with them.
I never saw any dog get upset at a person. They are now a part of the standard Pompeii visit.

Streets of Pompeii...

Today when you walk across the streets of Pompeii, you can witness the traces of old wagon wheels that used to roll over the big basalt stones on the streets. Nearly every citizen of Pompeii was able to read and write. This is made visible by many engravings on the walls, which are full of slogans, banners and other graffitis. Many houses remained surprisingly well preserved. The richly decorated villas of the city were mostly located at the seaside before the eruption. The residences were designed after prototypes of Greek architecture. Guests of these houses were often welcomed into an atrium from which the enclosed rooms led off. The atrium was surrounded by many stairs and a squared courtyard which was carried by four coloumns. The large entrances of other houses, called vestibules, were decorated with different religious murals and ornaments in order to protect its inhabitants. Another part of the villas was the peristyle. It was an open colonnade in which the gardens of the houses were situated. From the colonnade of the peristyle you could reach the special summer dining room. The most famous place of the once wealthy city of Pompeii was the forum. This was the main square of the city. It was the location of the administration buildings, the thermal springs, which were separate for men and women, and the market halls. On its northern side was the Capitolinic Temple, in the east the Macellum and the Eumachia (market halls for food and clothes) with the Temple of Vespasian. In the southeast you can find the Comitium (the court) and on the western side is the location of the Basilika.The water channel system of the city worked extremly well.

INTRODUCTION

Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long tragic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius going on for two days in AD 79.