Pompeii Pictures from Ms. Tang’s visit July 2010

Excavated ruins at Pompeii

This is the view from the entrance of a home in Pompeii. The room is the atrium, where guests were greeted. In the middle is the impluvium, where water was collected in a shallow pool through a hole in the ceiling called the compluvium.

This is a view of a road in Pompeii leading to the forum. The large circular stones in the road were stepping stones. Trash and refuse often filled the streets so stepping stones were necessary to cross!

Columns near the Temple of Jupiter in the forum at Pompeii.

Part of the forum in Pompeii.

A plaster cast of a body cavity found at Pompeii, surrounded by other artifacts found at the site.

Plaster cast of a dog found at Pompeii. He was chained and could not escape.

Cast of a human found in Pompeii. There are several large amphorae (pottery storage vessels) to the left.

View from a street. What type of architecture do you see?

The atrium of a large Roman home with an impluvium and well.

A painted wall inside a home in Pompeii. These are called “frescoes”

Here, you can see the bricks below the plaster upon which frescoes were painted.

This is a thermopolium in Pompeii, where Roman "fast food" was served. The holes in the counter are where pots filled with food or warmed wine were probably stored.

What can you see in this fresco?

Original marble from a home in Pompeii.

In between the cement blocks were iron rods that helped to keep the blocks in place.

Water was dumped in the roads to clear debris and trash. Eventually the water and trash would make its way down to this ancient "sewer" in Pompeii.

One of the smaller streets in a "neighborhood" of Pompeii. More humble houses were found closer to the outskirts of the city.

Archeologists are still excavating Pompeii. This hole has been dug by an archeologist, who puts the dirt in buckets, that is later sifted through. Objects are then labeled and recorded.

Graffiti was common in ancient Pompeii. Here you can still see the traces of some. They were often for political candidates, favorite gladiators, or messages of love.

Skeletons excavated from a site in Pompeii.

Mount Vesuvius

The top are modern day grains. The black pellets below them are carbonized grains from Ancient Rome.

Many bodies were found huddled near the shore where people were probably hoping to escape by boat.

A modern building in the background of overgrown walls in Pompeii. Scientists think that Pompeii will erupt again soon.