Blog post: Les derniers jours de Pompei: la fermeture de 13 villas

Thanks to Gaby Grosse for sending me the link to this blog post on the website of Le Monde:

Les derniers jours de Pompei: la fermeture de 13 villas
En ce début de janvier, la lecture du journal local "Il Matino" m'apprenait la décision de fermer 13 des plus belles et suggestives villas de Pompei, la célèbre cité ensevelie par les cendres du Vesuve le 24 août 79 . Cette décision découle du fait que l'administration du site ne dispose plus de moyens financiers pour assurer leur entretien et le personnel nécessaire pour les maintenir ouvertes. Cette annonce officialise une fermeture de fait que j'avais pu constater la veille.

Read the full post here.

David Gill awarded the 2012 AIA Outstanding Public Service Award

It's not strictly Pompeii-related, but I want to spread the news that David Gill, one of my colleagues at Swansea, will be the 2012 recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) Outstanding Public Service Award. The award recognises David's "ongoing efforts to educate both professional archaeologists and the public at large on the threats posed by the international antiquities trade".

Anyone who doesn't yet follow David's blog, Looting Matters, really should!

Vesuvius again - please vote!

The Eruptions blog occasionally profiles particular volcanoes. At the moment there is a poll to see which volcano readers would like to be profiled. Vesuvius is one of them - and I would like it to be featured! So, I am asking you all to go to this page and vote for Vesuvius!!

Blog: Eruptions

I recently came across a blog about volcanic eruptions. Eruptions is written by a geologist and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in volcanoes. There are a couple of really interesting posts about Vesuvius:

• Danger posed by Vesuvius downgraded from "Biblical" to "Monumental"
• The last moments of Pompeii

Vesuvius also features in the discussion of other volcanoes on this site. There is also an interesting comparison between the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and that of Mount St Helens in 1980 on a related ScienceBlogs site: A tale of two volcanoes. And you can find a brief history of the eruptions of Vesuvius here.

Italian Pompeii blog

I've discovered a couple of Italian blogspots on Pompeii:

http://pompei-scavi.blogspot.com/. Many of its posts are about modern Pompei, but there are some on the excavations.

http://pompeionline.blogspot.com/. This one is just about the excavations, with news about current events.