"Bronze Age Pompeii" Discovered

FortKnox writes "Italian archaeologists that were selling rights to build an underground parking lot, north of Pompeii, have discovered an ancient village within it. This discovery is a village that is basically a snapshot of the bronze age. The city, which is north of Vesuvius, was given the name "Nola". One odd thing, though, unlike Pompeii, they haven't found bodies in Nola. Good stuff to find, and a good place to compare theory with proof."

Comments

Re:Atlantis

[Anonymous Coward]

Atlantis is an island. To find the lst city we would have to find an ancient destroyed city out on the sea. So, no this isn't Atlantis but it's new and interesting instead.

Bronze Life

[WebBug]

This is really a gold mine. I can't believe how fortunate we are to have a site like this. It may well do for Bronze age knowledge what Pompeii did for Roman knowledge.

We are going to see, for the first time, what life was REALLY like in bronze age Europe. It could very well change all our ideas about the development of early societies.

Yeeha! I can't wait to go . . .

Re:Bronze Life

[Cato the Elder]

I think this will give us valuable insight into Bronze Age life. However, I don't think this will be the definitive answer for "what life was REALLY like in bronze age Europe." Bronze Age culture in Europe was no more uniform than it was today. I'm sure this village in what is now Italy would be very different from, say, a Celtic settlement in Bronze Age Gaul or a Basque village in what is now Spain.

Must have been intelligent...

[thundercatzlair]

One odd thing, though, unlike Pompeii, they haven't found bodies in Nola

They pr'y saw the lava coming and said "let's get the hell outta here"...

Re:Atlantis

[flewp]

IIRC, Atlantis is traditionally described as a ring island system, with the "downtown" located in the middle of these rings, of which there were 3 I believe. It is also thought to be past the Pillars of Hercules, which some believe to be the straights of Gibralater(sp), placing it in the Atlantic. However, due to errors/variations in translation it's location is pretty hard to pinpoint.

I'll go ahead and book that next trip...

[trix_e]

for about 5 years from now, after they've had time to excavate more.

My wife and I went to Italy on our honeymoon in March and toured Pompeii. It truly is humbling to stand in the middle of this city. All at once it gives you a sense of 1) the fleeting nature of life 2) the complete and total lack of significance that the moment in time that we occupy right now has and 3) wonder at the way civilization has changed in the past few thousand years. I tend very easily to lose any sort of perspective on my place in the universe, visiting historical treasures such as these have the ability to show you a much broader and more complete picture of the world and your place in it...

I can't wait to visit Nola...

Re:That's fast magma!

[MsWillow]

I thought Pompeii was hit with a pyroclastic flow, rather like what happened at Mt. St. Helens - a fast-flowing glowing "cloud" of superheated, highly-pressurised rock-with-gas-dissolved, a la "pop rocks", not a puddle of liquid lava. As it fell, the rocks broke apart as the dissolved gasses suddenly un-dissolve, thus, in effect, providing its own gas cushion to move like an air-hockey puck. The hyperhot rocks then fragment, repeating until it's all powder.

The survival of this village's population would depend not only on how far away it was, but the intervening terrain. If it was still downhill, the flow would be fast. If it was more flat, the flow would slow greatly.

It's still fascinating. I wonder why this event wasn't shown on Roman coins? The reverses display many other things - wars, natural phenomenom, even voting. I'll have to look harder :)

What about the parking lot?

[line-bundle]

Are they still building it?

Re:Atlantis

[pubudu]

Atlantis was a morality play written by Plato to show Socrates idea of civil order and an ideal state, not a story to keep telling the kids years from now like The Illid and the Odyssey. The Atlantian stories were philosphical in nature and not a hyped report of current events, religon, or events. ... The age of the story was given in the story by Plato who got it from some Egyptian Mystic.

The case against Atlantis is stronger than you present it here as being. The opening of the Timaeus presents itself as happening the day after Socrates related action of the Republic, at which point Timaeus, Critias, and Hermocrates present their version of that city. That is, they present their version of Socrates' made-up regime, changing it where they thought it needed it. Philosopher-kings are replaced with priest-kings, the communism is abandoned, and it is presented as an ancient model to follow rather than a new one.

If you look at what Critias actually says, the ancient Athenians he describes in the story are the citizens of Socrates' city -- he suggests that his story is made up, but in keeping in line with the radically more conservative character of this discussion, it is presented as being true.

That is, the story of Atlantis first told in the Timaeus and Critias is presented as being false! Later people apparently didn't get the joke.

Since the above might seem controversial to some, here's an explanation that might seem less so to them. Plato promises us three dialogues dealing with Atlantis: the Timaeus, the Critias, and the Hermocrates. We never get to see the third, and the second is unfinished. Plato was prevented from finishing by the FBI and various 19th century materialist skeptics.