I'm very glad for the tourist picture of the collapse posted by Jo... the word landslide had created even greater horrors in my mind.
Now, what we've lost. By way of documentation, here is a picture I took of this wall nearly two years ago (incidentally on my birthday!). We might add some description and call this a brick quoined opus incertum wall, about three meters high with a slit window near the top. It existed between the last two doors (not numbered) in the eastern most insula of Regio III (7 or 8, depending on your map).
There are other items that could supplement this image. Jeremy, do you know of any archival images of this wall from your research? Perhaps Jennifer and Arthur Stephens have more precise and recent data from their via dell'Abbondanza project research.
Sadly, this kind of post-mortem documentation could become (and always could have been) a regular story.
4 comments:
Ha! Sorry if my inadvertant hyperbole caused you to panic, Eric! I actually thought it was worse that it was. But you're right that this sort of thing if likely to become more common. How depressing.
Great work Eric! This is one of the functions this blog could have. Unfortunately, I agree with your idea that this post-mortem documentation will become common. It would be great if we could make a map of the site to which we could link such things - and the other stuff we discuss. So that people can not only browse by date, but by place too!
First, an apology Eric. Being of an excessively anal character I attempted to centre the photo in your post. I failed, and somehow the size of the font changed! I'm sorry, I promise NEVER to interfere with the formatting of other people's posts again!
Now, looking again at the photo you posted, there doesn't seem to be a lot behind the wall. It's almost as if some excavation seems to have taken place there. Can you provide any more description of the location?
An article from a week ago - before the collapse - that I only just found ...
http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio-local/Pompei-da-salvare-Eva-Cantarella-lancia-l-allarme-Scavi-condannati-al-degrado/2059208/6.
Post a Comment