"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

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.

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...

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.