LINCOLN GEOGRAPHIC
Explorer
Pompeii
Ian, Edward, Olivia, and Amal
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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................3
What was a normal day in Pompeii?....................................................................4
What was the City like?........................................................................................6
What is Mt. Vesuvius?..........................................................................................7
What happened during the eruption?...................................................................8
What about the survival?......................................................................................9
What happened at the excavation?.....................................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................12
Wordwise Glossary..............................................................................................13
References...........................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Could you imagine what it was like to in Pompeii on the day August, 24th 79 A.D.? There were very happy
living people until the famous eruption of Mt.Vesuvius which took Pompeii down to the ground. Read this article to
find out about terrible eruption.
Mt. Vesuvius exploding at a steaming rate!
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What was a normal day in
Pompeii?
A normal day in Pompeii:
(4:27-5:42)
In the first part of the day people would go to
barber shops to talk and hang out. Also people had to
get water from the public fountains because most
people did not have private fountains in their house.
(5:42-6:58)
For breakfast they ate bread and cheese, maybe
with vegetables or anything else left over from the
night before. If you were poor you would eat on plates
made out of bread after you ate, you would eat the
plates too.
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(8:13 - 9:29)
In the
forum people walked, talked and
people went to the amphitheater to see them fight.
Many of them were slaves fighting each other and
discussed the problems of the town. For insistence you
lions for their freedom. It was like the football matches
might have heard a man say, “I want the troops to go
of today. We do not appreciate it now, but some
out of the city for battle, not stay inside and wait for
people did in 246 B.C.
the Romans to attack and capture us all.” Another
(1:15-2:31)
man might have responded, “No we should not it will
This was the moment of thermal baths. People
kill every troop. We should keep every troop that we
went to large hot springs and had baths together.
have. The Romans have almost 7000 troops we are
Thankfully they were cheap so slaves could keep clean
outnumber.” “We need to do that, keep troops not give
and were not dirty all the time.
them away to the Romans,” a third person might have
3:46-5:20
added. “Lets take a vote!” Sounds of “ok, ok, ok, sure”
could be heard in the forum. “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, it will
A short time before sunset, the romans had dinner
be the 3rd idea, we are going to keep the troops,”
eating olives and eggs, and even meat, fish and and
declares the forum leader. Even though that is not
cakes if they could afford it. There was no much to do
exactly what was said it is what it would have sounded
in the evenings, and the streets were not safe so people
like at this time in the forum.
went to bed early.
(12:00-1:15)
This was the moment to relax. Some rich noblemen
The people of Pompeii lived a pretty advanced life,
read on to learn more about what the city was like.
offered to the town an exhibition of gladiators so
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What was the City like?
people do not bathe in bathhouse any more) they had
Wobble wobble the cart fell into a ditch and up
bakery's (the first shot in the Roman war hit a bakery)
again. It’s 79 A.D. and we are back in the center on
and there was a amphitheater (a amphitheater is a
Pompeii. There was just farmers at the start but then
place were people performed plays). Pompeii was a
the city grew. The big city was not protected with walls
very complex city for its age and time.
that is vary weird because it was a rich city. Later they
A rumble for the wagon...
end up building 3 kilometer walls to protect the city
from attacks from the Romans. The walls width was 7
meters and there were 8 gates around the city. The
eldest, yet unknown building was made in 60 B.C. Did
you know that Pompeii is located in west cost of Italy?
It was 160 acres and it was whopping 500 meters
above sea level. Pompeii was also a very technological
city. When it rained they had gutters to carry the water
away, wow! Also there water source came from the
river saron, they had fountains were people could get
the water. Another example of being technical is the
streets were vary narrow 2.4 to 9.5 meters. Did you
know they had temple to resemble the great gods of
pompeii? They also had big grand bathhouses
(bathhouse are people used to bath in them but now
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What is Mt. Vesuvius?
what happened when this complex volcano erupted on
the city built below. This volcano’s ash blocked the
What's Mt.vesuvius? What's the fact's? Tell me?
sun. Imagine when the moon blocks the sun it is like
Okay, I will tell you. First this volcano is about 4,000
that but with ash! Read on to learn more.
feet tall! That's 1,400 meters! That’s like 5 Empire
State building stacked on top of each other.
Mt.Vesuvius is complex. What does that mean? Well it
is a volcano which has more than one feature. This
means it has more than one vent, or place where lava
can flow out. It also has gone through many stages,
from a cone to the mountain it is today. But for double
the action there's more than one volcano. Since Italy is
right on tectonic plates it has tons of volcanos and
disasters there including: campi flegrei (the closest
volcano), Stromboli, Panarea, Vulcano, Etna, Campei
Flegrei del Mardi Sicilla (the farthest volcano ). So
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What happened during
the eruption?
Bang! A load of fiery, hot, gooey lava sprouted out
from the volcano, Mt.Vesuvius at 12. in the afternoon.
People were running and screaming while the ash
poured down the volcano at 70 miles per hour. As it
did, people and animals started getting sick and also
started choking. It took 24 hours to cover the beautiful
city of Pompeii. After that it was dark for 3 whole
days! At the end there was 3.5 meters of ash covering
the hard, bare ground. It would be 1,671 more years
Ash and pumice raining down on
everything
until people see daylight there again!
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What about the survival?
The people of Pompeii made weird decisions. Only
one boy survived the eruption. That boy was Pliny. He
was only 18 when the eruption started. Imagine being
that young when a eruption happens and your the
only one who survived. Then this boy bought a boat
and sailed across the bay of Naples and got to sea.
That is a long trip. His jobs were a lawyer, a author
and a magistrate (the officer of the state). Pliny died
at the age of 51. That's old for that age at that time. At
first 90 % of the people of Pompeii got to safety and
some brought valuables. Shockingly all but Pliny went
back and died. I wonder why he didn’t go back?
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What happened at the
excavation?
Shovel, shovel! In the 1900s, archeologists dug up the
Whoosh! As the wind blew, silence hung over
Pompeii, nobody moved, no one was even there. After
the spooky eruption in 79 A.D, a group of people who
set out to find the lost city of Pompeii were amazed!
Eyes scanned beautiful jewels sparkling in the sun,
ancient helmets that the gladiators wore were covered
in ash, even the old, dirty furniture. Wow! What
interesting treasures! So they slowly picked away the
ash, and dug, and dug until they reached priceless
treasures. The people sold the precious treasures for
money or, it's obvious, they kept them. Some scholars
were allowed to study the finds. Amazed by the
treasure, people really started to dig. They kept the ash
and pumice blocked by wooden panels. Pick, pick!
ancient bodies of Pompeii. The first body to be found
had the most beautiful, sparkling jewels in it's skeleton
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hands. They put the gooey, sticky glue on the bones,
because they were broken into what seemed like a
thousand pieces. Then they put white plaster on the
bodies that were not disintegrated (because of all the
ash and pumice). People kept slowly digging at the ash.
As they dug, they found petrified eggs still on the grill!
It was figured that objects burned underneath the old,
ashy, ancient city where it was preserved for almost
more than 2,000 years! Plus they found the huge
skeletons of horses, dogs, mules, and, donkeys too.
This dog was chained to a rope, and was struggling to
get free. He choked and got sick, then, sadly, died
Apparently, by the skeleton the archeologists can figure
looked like, like if it was a girl or boy, horse or mule. It
out what probably the people and their animals had
was pretty obvious that a scull was probably a dog or
human. Pompeii is now visited by millions and millions
of people. When will Mt. Vesuvius erupt again?
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Conclusion
The city and the people of Pompeii were facing a threat, but Mt. Vesuvius must be happy, dun dun dun! This
eruption taught people a lesson. Don't start your town near a Volcano. Do you think Mt. Vesuvius will erupt again?
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Wordwise Glossary
Saron - the river that Pompeii got the water supplies
Forum- this is a place where people discussed problems
Magistrate- an officer of the town
Pumice- a rock that sprouts out of a volcano all rocky already
Ash- pulverized rock minerals and volcanic glass created during volcanic eruptions less than 2mm(0.079)in
diameter
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References
Reference 1 - Mt. Vesuvius web from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount–Vesuvius
Reference 2- Lost Pompeii
Reference 3- Pompeii by Richard Platt
Reference 4- www.BBCHistory.com
Reference 5- Storyworks Magazine by Lauren Tarshis
Reference 6- Solving the Mysteries of Pompeii by Charlie Samuel
Reference 7- The lost city of Pompeii by Joan Malam
Reference 8- Buried Pompeii by Shelly Tanaka
Reference 9- www.history.com
Reference 10- www.google.com/images
Reference 11- Google Earth
Reference 12- www.Ask.yahoo
Reference 13- www.BBC.com
Reference 14- Pompeii lost and found by Mary Osborn Frescoes and Bonnie Christensen
Reference 15- Pompeii unearthing ancient worlds by Liz Sonneborn
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