Life and Death in Pompeii
While one half of Pompeii collapses thanks to neglect by the authorities, archaeologists continue to uncover the part that is still buried. By now they are working outside the town centre and their discoveries are more mundane than grand temples or pompous villas. In fact, a building excavated in the 1980s turned out to be an underground cool room in which a bumper crop of pomegranates had been stored.
It must have seemed like a safe haven from the noise and chaos in the open air and fifty-four people took shelter in this basement room, only to perish as poisonous gases sank down the staircase after them and then the roof of the building collapsed under the weight of ash and that in turn led the floor to fall in on them, burying them and perserving their skeletons.
Recently the Italian authorities have had the leisure to submit the skeletons to detailed analysis and they have turned up some fascinating facts. Fabian Kanz, an anthropologist from Vienna, was one of the team that examined the remains and he was fascinated to discover a pair of twins whose skeletons bore marks that today would be interpreted as congenital syphillis.
You may wonder what is surprising about that: the citizens of Pompeii were notoriously lax as far as sex was concerned. The brothel is one of the popular sights in the city and the phallic images and erotic art work that have been preserved makes it plain that Pompeii did not subscribe to the Puritan ethic! Where there is promiscuity, there will inevitably be STDs - Sexually Transmitted Diseases - and the discovery that these two individuals suffered from one of the commoner STDs is only to be expected.
It is the nature of that STD that caused surprised. Popular mythology holds that up until 1492 Europe was more or less free from serious sexual diseases and people could fornicate freely without fear. It was - so the mythology holds - sailors in Columbus' fleet who brought syphillis back from the New World and put an end to the golden age of immorality.
Historical records appear to support this thesis, for syphillis achieved epidemic proportions in the years after the discovery of the New World and if the American Indians were decimated by smallpox and cholera, they have their revenge, for at least a million people were infected in Europe between 1495 and 1539 and the plague continues, with twelve million infected world-wide in 1999 and in the West, at least, the majority of infections are among homosexual men. As syphillis cannot - so far as we know - be contracted from toilet seats or sharing eating utensils or clothing, the epidemic is due to careless promiscuity.
Several other discoveries have pointed to an earlier origin for the disease, but they have been disputed. The discovery of the syphillitic twins in Pompeii, however, appears to put the matter beyond question. Syphillis was around in the first century AD and there is no reason to suppose that it was absent even earlier. No wonder the Bible urges chastity, for the wages of sin rarely come in a more gruesome form than untreated tertiary syphillis!
Almost as surprising was the discovery that the people of Pompeii did not live lives that were short, nasty and brutish. There was a good range of ages among the fifty-four, from children up to elderly. What is often forgetten is that when we talk of a short life expectancy, we are talking averages. It may well be true that the average life expectancy was 48 (or whatever other figure the boffins produce) but the fact was that the majority of those young deaths took place before the age of ten. In fact, only half the population lived longer than ten years, but if you survived that long, you could expect to live almost as long as people do today.
Analysis of tooth enamel shows the tell-tale traces of infectious diseases, proving that these adults were the ones who had survived the child-hood diseases that killed off their less hardy fellows. In the absence of modern anti-biotics, such diseases required a good deal of nursing care - and the two syphillis sufferers particularly required care - and the fact that children survived indicates that the care was forthcoming. The pharmacopeia may not have been modern, but TLC - tender loving care - by parents was as readily available.
Another factor was the diet eaten by these people. Analysis of waste found in rubbish dumps and cesspits in Pompeii and Herculaneum shows that among the foods eaten in Pompeii were dormice, snails, fish and sea urchins, chickens and eggs, olives, figs, grapes, pears, walnuts, beans and seasonings such as coriander and fennel. Another popular seasoning was poppy seed, possibly dusted over the outside of breads and cakes. Such foods were found in the rubbish of luxury villas and in the rubbish of modest blocks of flats, indicating that unless you were right down the bottom of society, you could eat relatively well.
However the basement held one last mystery: the bodies were found in two groups. On one side of the basement was a group of skeletons with no possessions other than the clothes they wore - the traces of which were found in the ash that packed around them. On the other side of the room was a group loaded with gold, jewels and precious objects. In fact, one of the skeletons was curled around a pile of money that was the largest single deposit ever found in Pompeii! It wasn't millions of sestertii - a mere 10,000, the equivalent of ten years pay for a legionary - but it probably represented someone's life savings!
The coins were in two separate containers, one containing silver coins that showed signs of wear and had clearly been in use in the market place and passed from hand to hand before ending up in the thrifty person's pot. The other pot contained gold coins in mint condition. Just as some people today buy South African gold Rands for investment purposes, so this individual had clearly saved his pennies and when he had enough, had spent them to buy a brand new gold coin, to be added to his piggy pot.
Archaeologists love to speculate and here was plenty of room for vivid imaginations. Where these fifty-four people a set of wealthy aristocrats and their slaves, separated by social mores as they awaited death? In which case, were the rich people holding the treasure or had they given it to their slaves to carry for them? Alternatively you may have a group of artisans on one side and a group of criminals who had been looting wealthy houses and tumbled down into the shelter clutching their ill-gotten gains. Or were they all respectable middle-class merchants, half of whom had panicked and fled without trying to rescue anything while the others had taken the time to gather up their little wealth and take it with them.
It is unlikely that we will ever be able to decide between these alternative theories, but that is the fun of archaeology: here are the facts, now use your knowledge of human psychology and ancient history to clothe the bare facts with life and make a coherent story.
careless promiscuity The only innocent pastime that can transmit syphillis is kissing - though as the mucous membranes are involved, a quick peck on the cheek is probably not a cause for worry. Kissing on the lips or what used to be known in my youth as "French kissing" - which involves the tongue - is to be avoided, however. Return
© Kendall K. Down 2010
