In a rut

I’m off to Los Angeles next week for my stint at the Getty Research Institute. The plan is to work on Pompeii.

First of all, I’m going to be taking a serious, hard look at the traces of religious activities that have come up from the excavations (what exactly were those “lararia” for?). But that’s supposed to move on to writing a more general book. My sense is that most books about Pompeii for non-specialists don’t manage to exploit a lot of the new archaeological work that’s being done on the site. Except, of course, for studies of vulcanology. They’re always full of the latest boffin theory on pyroclastic flow, lava surges and the like – and they detail the death throes of the poor inhabitants minute by minute.

I’m intending to steer clear of death and destruction, “Pompeii the disaster movie”. Instead I want to think about what the buried city can tell us about ancient life.

The Getty Library probably owns one of the best collections on Pompeii in the world. But I still felt that I ought to go and take another look at the ruins themselves before I ended up so many thousand miles away. So last weekend, I went off to Naples to spend a couple of days on the site and at the Naples Museum.

Top of the agenda -- thanks in part to your interest in an earlier post -- were the loos (the Roman ones, that is) and the cart ruts in the streets.

I have to confess that I didn’t make much progress on the loos. Since I last wrote, I have discovered some good bibliography on the subject, if you’re interested. I particularly like Gemma Jansen’s article, “Private Toilets at Pompeii: appearance and operation”, in S. E. Bon and R. Jones, Sequence and Space in Pompeii – even if her conclusions aren’t all that surprising. Pompeians liked to be able to sit down on the loo, they “wanted to get ride of urine and feces, possible through flushing with water”, they didn’t like peeing in total darkness.

The trouble is that toilets are often located in the back parts of houses – which means that, even in those houses that are open to the public (and there’s not all that many of them), they are in the parts that are off limits. So any serious work on defecation etc will have to wait until I get a special permit.

No such problem gets in the way of looking at the ruts, those deep gashes in the paved streets caused by hundreds of years of carts trundling through them. They’re one of the most memorable sights of the ancient city -- partly, I think, because they do make you feel closer to real Pompeian life. That is, they are real traces of someone actually moving around the place on their daily business . . . where now only tourists stroll.

Recently archaeologists have had the bright idea of looking closer at these ruts and wondering if you could use them to trace the traffic flow. Some things turn out to be clear enough. There are certainly some pedestrian-only areas near the forum, and other places where you can deduce the ancient equivalent of traffic calming measures.

But an article in last year’s Journal of Roman Archaeology began to sketch out a whole one-way street system for one area of the city (largely on the basis of the direction of the ruts and the worn kerb stones at junctions, and what they showed about the way the traffic was turning). I wanted to have a look at this evidence with my own eyes. Could you really tell which way the carts were travelling at these key junctions? Could you then plot the one-way streets? And, if so, could you start to imagine what kind of authority in ancient Pompeii would have been able to impose this system? Where are the one-way street signs?

So what was my verdict? Well there’s certainly something in it. And anyone can have some good fun on the site thinking about how the ruts and scrapes might reveal the traffic flow at some of these key junctions. But I didn’t buy the whole scheme. The real problem is knowing what the scrapes on the kerbside mean. It wasn’t clear to me, for example, that scrapes on the right-hand kerb of a junction really did mean that traffic was taking a sharp right. And it wasn’t clear that the ruts showed that either.  After all, if you want to negotiate a sharp right turn, aren’t you actually more likely to move to the left of the street and then swing around in a large loop to the right. Isn’t a right turn, in other words, more likely to leave scrape marks on the left hand curb?

Much as I hate “re-con” history, I came to the conclusion that the only way you could decide what was going on was by building a mock-up cart (we know the standard axle width from the ruts). Then you could steer it round the junctions and see what happened.

Comments

[Dave]

My thoughts on the height of the curbs in Pompeii - as I walked between and beside them two years ago - was to have kept the carts, carriages and horses (?) more or less 'contained' within them instead of without. This would have also allowed owners to walk beside their carts instead of riding on the backs of the animal pulling them - a very rough ride indeed - until the ruts became as smooth as they are in places.
This was one of my first impressions when setting foot within the ruins, that they reveal formal 'town planning' everywhere one turns - the straight, long roads; the distinct placement of buildings along them - efficiency of design for day-to-day life which must have included year-round movement of people and goods.

[anthony alcock]

Which way round is always interesting.
A Greek text recently discovered in a 4th cent. village in the Dakhla Oasis contains various names followed by occupations. One of these names, an Egyptian name, is clearly that of a woman, but because the occupation following it is "traditionally" male, cobbler, the editor of the text concludes that this female name must belong to a man. Which way round ?
I pointed out in a note (Archiv für Payrusforschung) that since the name is indisputably female, one should consider the possibility that women actually did this job. Since I wrote the note, another instance of a clearly identifiable woman doing this job has been found on an ostracon and was published a couple of years ago.

[Mary]

Ah..the lararia. Well, I think they are tricky things. The material definition isnt easy. (Does any shelf that might have held statues of gods count? it sure does in most handbooks to the site.) And even less easy is the question of what happened at them..the idea of morning prayers conducted by the paterfamilias as in an English country house certainly doesn't wash. But what does?

[SW Foska]

Great links Roy, thanks! Just a question which I can't resolve from where I'm sitting: is the title 'Turkish woman with slave' Liotard's?
I ask because you say 'Venetian' and 'Turkish' but no Byzantine but in fact many of Liotard's subjects were in fact Christian Orthodox inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire (see the hard-to-find study by Remus Niculescu, Jean-Etienne Liotard à Jassy, 1742-1743. 40 p.: 35 fig. ; 26 cm. Tiré à part de: Genava. N.s., t. 30, 1982) and although respectable scholars for years have been promoting the term 'Ottoman' to cover all inhabitants of the Empire irrespective of religion there has been a move backward in recent years doubtless on account of people who know no better being buttered up to use the term 'Turkey' 'Turks' or 'Turkish' viz the expo at the Royal Academy in 2004-5 rightly criticized on these grounds by the TLS and the Cambridge History of Turkey vol. 3 whose title was disowned by its editor on H-Turk. If you buy Iorga's Byzance apres Byzance line then the figures you expose us to are quintessentially Byzantine, but none the less Ottoman for that.

[Roy Lewis]

Two webpages with pictures of medieval raised shoes including Venetian and Turkish, but no Byzantine.
www.midrealm.org/mkyouth/links/medshoes.htm
http://www.allaboutshoes.ca/en/heights_of_fashion/east_meets_west/index.php

[Roy Lewis]

Another question. The high curbs at Pompeii are similar in height to the mounting blocks found in Britain and the USA (and elsewhere, I presume) in pre-internal combustion days. Is there any correlation between high curbs and wealthier houses where one might expect the gentlefolk to be mounting horses or carts? Or, could it just be that high curbs did double duty generally?

[Roy Lewis]

I was just wondering how the lararium-inspection part of your trip went? I'm particularly interested in what short of lararium a Roman magistrate might have carried with him to the provinces, or to his field quarters. Have you come across anything that touches on such matters?

[SW Foska]

@ LT: kerb heights is nothing to do with functionality or sluicing, it's a macho thing, an assertion of status, and a way of causing damage to the paintwork of your guests' Tivoli tractors as they draw up outside your villa.
About filthy streets and footwear I've been looking for some internet images of a kind of platform shoe deployed in the Ottoman empire by notables to keep their pinkies above shit-height in dirty thoroughfares but no luck. Any surviving examples in the Getty museum perchance?

[Lord Truth]

I am sorry to press on with these apparently simplistic naive-ish remarks sandwiched as they are between such massively convoluted linguistic erudition- though I did -seriously- read many years ago that being obssessed with dead languages was actually a form of mental illness-as also curiously ,was the ability to write rhyming poetry (well thats done in a lot of people then ) but I feel I must comment on the frequent remarks concerning the cleanliness or otherwise of Pompeiian streets
Prof Beard remarks that 'there might be a lot of stinking waste human or otherwise' in these streets.
Now I believe that finding the truth of this situation is not unimportant.
It is knowing these matters that surely takes us to the heart of the Roman mind.
There can be two views -I will call one the Hollywood(HW)- Immaculately clean streets and buildings etc-and the Middle Ages (MA) the rich resplendently dressed going about filthy stinking streets among dead cats animals human waste etc
Which is true?
The most impressive aspect of the Romans was their administrative organisation whether in their approach to battles or civic problems.
I do not know the extent of studies in municipal administration but as Rome itself operated under strict building regulations-to stop unsafe practices etc and had traffic controlling arrangments surely street cleaning must have been involved? Can one imagine people who built barracks and roads in the most direct modernist manner ,allowing their coiffured ladies to set off for dinner parties etc in streets full of stinking refuse that a slave could have quickly swept clean?
I think there is no comparison with the MA situation for a reason connected to todays political reasoning
Rome was 'democratic'- in the sense of pre-emancipation America-the real class definer was -free or not free?
In the Middle Ages to arrange for street cleaning would have both cost money AND been a public benefit-but it might lead to other ideas-If everyone can benefit from rich generosity why not have free education etc as well.
Accordingly -the paving over of a street -the establishment of a school etc only occurred as clearly established charitable , religious connected acts-not as dangerously socialisticaly inspired events
In Rome etc these fears did not apply
I therefore suggest that Pompeiian streets were -like most of Rome clean enough for Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr to happily saunter down without getting their sandals dirty-but now perhaps- someone will shoot me down with with a reference.....

[Mary]

There are various possibe answers to Lord T's question. The standard one is that rain water etc rushed down the streets, particularly after one of those Mediterranean storms -- so necessitating high stepping stones and kerbs. To check this, one would have to look and see if those with low kerbs were in some way protected from the torrents.
I have aways thought that the 'etc' might include an awful lot of stinking waste, human and animal. and indeed that could combine to build up a layer over the flag stones....but it has to be soft enough for ruts to form.

[Lord Truth]

Before this post goes so to speak, down the toilet of infinity I would like to say two things.First the obssesion with these matters is embarrassing.Except for the rich,surely Romans in towns lived in small flats or rooms, leading an outside life not unlike a Parisian in the 19Century. A shared ancient slave would empty the chamber pots and bring in food from "takeaways" as neccessary
Many of the toilets are indeed in backrooms-despite abscence of venereal disease they would surely have been-in houses- places usually avoided-indeed really sluices like the toilet in the kitchen of Rembrandts house etc
Public toilets were another matter-these were where the free Roman could share the thrill of being free -they were rather like Christian churches-unifying and uplifting places...
But enough of these matters..

I am really intrigued by your photo of the Pompeiian street...I have never read any book mentioning this but I have always been puzzled by the extraordinary height of the curbs in Pompeii.
In your picture the height is normal -modern in fact,but these are exceptions.
Prof Beards sturdy gams may not have noticed but most/many kerbs are ten inches or more high-the last time I was there I measured quite a few
That is high and surely tiring when you keep crossing the street to talk to your friends.
I have wondered if in fact the road surface was higher than it now looks-there surely must have been a thick layer of dust etc-but if this was the case the stepping stones would need to be higher
The stairs in the Colosseum also have high risers and the angle of the stairs is fortyfive degrees-all far more tiring to climb than modern stairs
Perhaps Romans,even rich ones were far less effete than we sometimes imagine ,surrounded as they were with slaves to do everything
Perhaps this "road/kerb height"question has been fully covered in a book-I find it rather intriguing.

[Robert Peake]

The weather is lovely right now. Hopefully you'll get a chance to enjoy a modern Southern California Spring in addition to the ancient loos.

[Chas S. Clifton]

"And, if so, could you start to imagine what kind of authority in ancient Pompeii would have been able to impose this system?"

This is pure speculation and the historical analogy is not the best, but I recall learning that during the 19th century mining era, wheeled traffic on certain narrow Colorado mountain passes went up (from the east) in the morning and down in the afternoon.

Anyone breaking this informal rule was going to meet some angry teamsters armed with whips and more.

Now it seems to me that one-way street rules could be enforced the same way. Add in urban passers-by shouting, "No, go the other way, you stupid idiot!"

Newcomers would learn the pattern soon enough.

[Xjy]

One of the mysteries of Pompeii might fascinate the German and or Swedish-speaking psychoanalysts and cultural historians out there. It's the story of German archaeologist Norbert Hanold as told by Wilhelm Jensen in 1903. His novelle, entitled "Gradiva [the "stunning stepper"] ein pompejanisches Phantasiestück" is freely available online at:

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/jensen/gradiva/gradiva.htm

Sigmund Freud did a psycho-dig gig on the story that was published in 1907:

http://pep-web.org/document.php?id=SE.009.0000A

(This text isn't freely available, but might be accessible with a university account.)

In 1967, the Swedish scholar and poet Göran Printz-Påhlson (who taught at Cambridge for many years) wrote a poetic drama on the story with guest appearances by Darwin, Marx, Freud and Montague Summers in an epilogue. It can be read in Gradiva och andra dikter, or in his collected poems Säg, minns du skeppet Refanut?

With a supporting cast of thousands of northern honeymooners and southern insects.

[Jackie]

In my posting about the loos in Pompeii I said that 195 private toilets had been investigated by 1997. It was Gemma Jansen who investigated them (and presumably counted them!)I found her article fascinating, and admired her devotion to duty!

[Fred O'Hanlon]

Dear Mary

You spent time at Pompeii and at Capodimonte but what about Herculaneum? Are you are interested in what information about 1st century life, especially everyday life, in Italy the catastrophic eruption of Veusivius left for posterity or specifically in life in Pompeii? Why does Ercolano never seem to get a look-in?

Here are a few extracts in Italian from an internet guide to Ercolano. Latin scholars wll surely understand.

" ... la città fu completamente distrutta e sepolta da una eruzione del Vesuvio, insieme alle città di Pompei, Stabiae, etc. … La città di Ercolano fu sepolta da un flusso piroclastico (nube ardente) che raggiunse una velocità di 100-130 km/h e temperature intorno ai 100° C che portò con sé frammenti di roccia e pomice liquefatti. … Il materiale fluido, che si depositò con una violenza inaudita, frantumando ogni cosa, penetrò però lentamente all'interno delle case coprendo, senza modificarne la posizione, i mobili e gli oggetti che vi si trovavano. E' questa una delle ragioni per cui ad Ercolano sono stati rinvenuti così tanti reperti ben conservati. La temperatura alta di questa massa ardente, carbonizzò abiti, fogli di papiro e legno senza distruggerli, cosicché ancora oggi si possono osservare travi, mobili, scale, e tralicci e trarre un'idea delle usanze del tempo. La maggior parte delle persone (erano presenti circa 4000 cittadini) riuscì a scappare via e gli unici abitanti ritrovati all'interno della città sembrano essere persone che in qualche modo erano impedite, come ad esempio il fanciullo ammalato ritrovato nel suo letto nella bottega del tagliatore. ..."