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"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."
Natural time capsules like Pompeii, Herculaneum, the "ice man", Peruvian mountain mummies fascinate the Hell out of me because they give a hint of the life that was lived by those using the things left behind.
This discovery seems especially interesting because reconstructing bronze age villages has been the province of experimental archaeologists like the late Dr. Peter Reynolds. It should be good to have more data to compare their reconstructions with.
The Roman Empire happened to be the most advanced civilization until the 1800's. They knew that they were going to die, however, Vesuvius is not like many Hawaiian volvanoes, Vesuvius erupted much more like Mt. St. Helens. However, many Romans in Pompeii did get out. Many of the richer classes were able to escape via ships, but there weren't enough ships to carry 60,000ish people from the chaotic streets. For most of the people there, it was sure death. They died, not from heat, but from suffocation from the ash. Many never stood a chance. Now, Herculaneum is a different story altogether. Herculaneum was buried in a rush of boiling mud, on the opposite side of Vesuvius from Pompeii. Once again, Vesuvius is probably a 30 minute walk from Pompeii, so it's pretty close...
Besides, this Bronze Age Civilization could have left for many other reasons. Look at the Mayan Civilization in Mexico and Central America. We still don't know why they disappeared...
If you dig the ruins in Italy, you should try Turkey. Italy went through a long and intense phase of recycling where the materials of ancient buildings were nicked to build new ones. While Turkey certainly wasn't exempt from that, the profusion of well-preserved ruins is astounding. I've heard Algeria also has swaths of only lightly cannabilized ruins but I haven't verified that yet.
Sigh... A sense of continuity and antiquity is one of the things lacking in America that I truly miss (Native Americans excepted).
True... but what do you mean, "this day and age"? I think this would have always been true. Essentially, this is why so few of Imperial Roman buildings still exist in Rome; the subsequent Romans were always ripping them down for building materials (common), destroying them because they were pagan images (less common), or ripping them down so they could build something new (perhaps least common).
But, either way, a developer isn't going to be happy to find this. This is one thing we rarely have to deal with in the US, but it's pretty common in Europe, and, say, Israel. I don't know about the other parts of the Middle East, but I imagine most of the Arab governments have other things to worry about than archaeology.
Come on, give it up, that's
Can we not feel a sense of "antiquity" without needing a cultural "continuity"?
A few suburbs from me, a tens-of-thousands-of-years-old bora ring was recently rediscovered. The same culture that created that site still exists today - although I am not indigenous, I can't help but feel awe at the fact that I live so close to a cultural relic of a truly geological timescale that still has contemporary significance.
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The little village is a few thousand years older than the rest of the city.