FROM OUR 2012 JOURNAL ENTRY after our first visit to Pompeii—If you lived in Pompeii, August 24 in the year 79 AD would have been a good day to be out of town. Around noon, Mt. Vesuvius began pouring tons of ash into the sky. It had been rumbling for a few days but no one thought much of it. As the ash piled up in Pompeii the people must have started to panic. The entire town was rising and the sea which came up to the wharfs outside of town seemed to recede. And the ash just kept on coming.— As it happens a vacation from Pompeii in August 79 AD might have been a pleasant experience but it wouldn’t have affected your longevity.
“the 16th day before the calends of November.”
The date of August 24 was attributed to a letter by Pliny the Younger describing the event. "I have faithfully related to you what I was either an eye-witness of myself or received immediately after the accident happened, and before there was time to vary the truth,” he wrote decades later. Skeptical archeologists wondered why braziers used for heating and heavy clothing were found among the ash. Others noticed calcified fruits on the tree branches that wouldn’t have been present until later in the year. Still, it was tough to argue with Pliny, Younger or Elder, and August 24 became the accepted date of the eruption.
Excavating Casa del Giordino (internet Photo)
Until 2016, that is, when a message was discovered in a new excavation in Regio V of Pompeii. Written in charcoal on the wall of Casa del Giordino (House of the Garden) it mentions “the 16th day before the calends of November.” Despite the changes to the calendar over the years, a host of leap-years and other anomalies, the new date for the eruption is identified as October 17, AD 79.
Sign on Casa del Giordino
While we were in Pompeii on Sunday we met Giovanna, one of Pompeii’s archeologists. She told us that Casa del Giordino and Casa del Orione have been open to visitors since September—groups of five are allowed to visit for 20-minutes with a special reserved ticket. And yesterday we were lucky enough to be among them!
Details of Mosaic of Orion
Even though we had just been to Regio V on Sunday, we had a devil of a job finding the entrance and arrived late. We were able to charm our way in—bribery was our fall-back position—and Maria proceeded to show us around. Casa del Orione is so named because of the unique floor mosaic featuring Orion, son of Neptune. You can find a wealth of information on-line about the symbolism in the mosaic or you can stand and marvel at how the intricacy of the individual pieces combine to make an ancient masterpiece.
Murals, Casa del Giordino
Details Portrait
In Casa del Giordino, House of the Garden, archeologists found the remains of plants whose roots they are actually propagating today! The detail and the color on the murals is amazing and it’s a privilege to be one of the few to have seen them in nearly 2000 years.
Among the First Visitors in 2000 years
The highlight, of course, was the faint inscription—the famous last words as it were—of the person who scribbled on the wall in charcoal. He may only have been a worker renovating a house but it’s quite certain he was there on “the 16th day before the calends of November.” Sorry, Pliny—your memory is no less fallible than mine.
