TV report: Pozzuoli, guasto alla pompa: tempio di Serapide allagato

From La repubblica TV:

Pozzuoli, guasto alla pompa: tempio di Serapide allagato
Un acquitrino ristagnante in cui galleggiano bottiglie e travi. Sono le condizioni del tempio di Serapide a Pozzuoli, allagato a causa delle piogge di giugno e del cattivo funzionamento di una pompa. Il tempio, che si chiama così ma in realtà è un mercato pubblico, giace su un fondo di fango e detriti che col tempo hanno creato muschio sui basamenti. Era già successo l'anno scorso, quando ci vollero mesi per liberarlo dall'acqua: un danno per i turisti e per i ristoratori della zona che hanno a che fare ripetutamente con il cattivo odore e le zanzare.

Beniculturali on YouTube

Something else I've discovered just today! MiBAC has a YouTube channel, with (mostly) TV reports on different sites/issues. There's nothing on Pompeii yet, but, if you don't have access to Italian TV where you are, this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

WHEN ROME RULED: DOOMSDAY POMPEII

For those of you in the US, Monday night at 9pm you can watch the National Geographic Channel's new documentary about Pompeii, WHEN ROME RULED: DOOMSDAY POMPEII:

This is the story of a disaster like no other. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it rained 8 million tons of debris onto Pompeii it sealed the fate of more than a thousand people. But it also sealed the city form the world: preserved it, protected it, like nowhere else on earth, the rediscovered Pompeii gives us access to the ancient world. And now, with new findings and new insights, we can tell the story of the ordinary people caught up in this disaster. These are the forgotten men and women who lived when Rome ruled....and were buried when the volcano blew.

Read more

The publicity photos and video on the website are all bones, bodies and slaves (same old, same old), but the documentary itself features the PARP:PS project which promises to make the episode more interesting. Congratulations to Steven Ellis and his team!

Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town

For those of us in the UK, Mary Beard's BBC2 programme about Pompeii is set to be shown next Tuesday at 9pm (England, N.Ireland and Wales only). Here are the details:

Pompeii: one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. We know how its victims died, but this film sets out to answer another question - how did they live? Gleaning evidence from an extraordinary find, Cambridge professor and Pompeii expert Mary Beard provides new insight into the lives of the people who lived in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius before its cataclysmic eruption.

In a dark cellar in Oplontis, just three miles from the centre of Pompeii, 54 skeletons who didn't succumb to the torrent of volcanic ash are about to be put under the microscope. The remains will be submitted to a barrage of tests that will unlock one of the most comprehensive scientific snapshots of Pompeian life ever produced - and there are some big surprises in store.

Using the latest forensic techniques it is now possible to determine what those who perished in the disaster ate and drank, where they came from, what diseases they suffered, how rich they were, and perhaps, even more astonishingly, the details of their sex lives.

The way the remains were found in the cellar already provides an invaluable clue about the lives of the people they belonged to. On one side of the room were individuals buried with one of the most stunning hauls of gold, jewellery and coins ever found in Pompeii. On the other, were people buried with nothing. It looked the stark dividing line of a polarised ancient society: a room partitioned between super rich and abject poor. But on closer examination the skeletons reveal some surprises about life in Pompeii.

TV interview with Carandini on Pompeii

Yesterday evening's episode of "Parla con me" included an interview with archaeologist Andrea Carandini on the subject of Pompeii (start watching at 8 minutes in). While obviously talking about the recent collapse of the House of the Gladiators, he also gives his opinions on a wide range of subjects related to the site's management. He was invited in his role of Presidente del Consiglio Superiore dei Beni Culturali i.e. President of the Council for Cultural Heritage which advises the government on heritage matters.

Viewers should note that some of his facts are not necessarily 100% accurate... (e.g. visitor numbers seem wildly exaggerated and we can be sure that Packard is definately not English!)

Watch The Fires of Pompeii online

In case anyone hasn't seen it - you can now watch the Dr Who episode The Fires of Pompeii on-line. Click here.

Blogging the BBC: take 2

More documentaries on the Vesuvius sites to look out for: the Lion TV team are back in the area for filming all this week. Today they were on location at Herculaneum again - this time without Mary Beard but with Don Wildman (of History Channel's Cities of the Underworld fame). And of course, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill was on hand at Herculaneum as the local expert...
This time the filming is for a BBC Discovery documentary (so more chances for US audiences to see it) which has a working title of "Pompeii: cellar of skeletons".

Blogging the BBC

Just spotted filming on location: Mary Beard and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill with the production company Lion TV.

Well, hardly spotted as I was helping make sure that things worked out for them at Herculaneum, but couldn't resist blogging about a fellow blogger. You can follow Mary's time filming in the Vesuvian area all this week on her blog A Don's Life, and the BBC should be showing the new documentary in late autumn in the UK at least.

At least one of the programme's themes seems to be toilets in the Roman world, which explains these photos of the team descending into Herculaneum's largest sewer. Other highlights include Andrew and Mary reenacting how to use a double latrine...

Documentary: Herculaneum Uncovered

The documentary Herculaneum Uncovered is available to watch online - it seems to have been there for some time, but we've only just noticed!

This episode is one of a series called Secrets of the Dead, and is described:
Near the fabled Pompeii is Herculaneum, another city buried and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Herculaneum Uncovered follows geo-archaeologists as they unearth precious artifacts that reveal what life was like before the eruption, and how the volcano devastated the town in a very different manner to Pompeii.

While the aerial views are particularly worth watching for, do take some of what the narrator says with a pinch of salt though, as usual TV is not always accurate. My favourite part is where the eighteenth-century Bourbon excavators are called "ancient tomb raiders"!

Commissario Fiori on RaiTre

The Commissario Straordinario of the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei, Marcello Fiori was on the RaiTre programme "Geo & Geo" last week.
You can watch the interview here which mainly focuses on the "adopt a dog" campaign.

Archeologiaviva.tv

And from today a TV channel for all things archaeology! And it's on-line - click here.

This is the announcement from Archeoblog:
L’annuncio in anteprima era già stato dato al pubblico del VII Incontro Nazionale di Archeologia Viva lo scorso 1 marzo 2009. Ora Archeologiaviva.tv, il primo canale web interamente dedicato all’archeologia apre i battenti.
La rivista Archeologia viva ha fatto il salto, andando ad aggiudicarsi un posto importante nel panorama dei media: internet.
La nuova TV-on line inaugurerà il 20 ottobre 2009 alle ore 11.30 presso GIUNTI Editore (Firenze, via Bolognese 165): per la prima volta il passato dell’uomo, dalla preistoria al medioevo, potrà essere rivissuto “in diretta” in casa propria grazie ai migliori documentari, ai servizi sulle ultime scoperte, a news su mostre e convegni, e ad interviste a tema.
Archeologiaviva.tv è una realizzazione di Archeologia Viva (Giunti Editore) e Rassegna Internazionale del Cinema Archeologico (Museo Civico di Rovereto).
All’evento interverranno:
Sergio Giunti – editore
Guglielmo Valduga – sindaco di Rovereto
Piero Pruneti – direttore Archeologia Viva
Franco Finotti – direttore Museo Civico Rovereto
Dario Di Blasi – direttore Rassegna Internazionale del Cinema Archeologico.

That Mitchell and Webb Look again

A few weeks back I posted about a comedy sketch from 'That Mitchell and Webb Look'. Readers outside the UK wouldn't have been able to view the BBC IPlayer recording I linked to (sorry!), but the sketch has now turned up on UTube. Enjoy!