Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure

by Joseph Jay Deiss, Joseph Jay Deis

Release Date: December, 1989

Edition: Paperback

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Excellent popularization of a horrific event

I greatly enjoyed this book. It carries you along deep into the personal lives of ancient Romans, nearly two millennia gone. Deiss constantly links the architecture to the minutiae of finds and to individual lives and actions. This is a wonderful way to do popular archaeology. It is worth taking along on a trip to visit Herculaneum, although slightly oversize for a pocket. It is not a street by street guidebook but rather is constructed by themes that make sense of the whole as well as the individual lives, and deaths, recovered deep in the ruins.

Herculaneum (and its neighbor Pompeii) are archaeological godsends, the rarest of time capsules showing the complete range of life at one particular instant in the Ancient world. The spectacular history, deep burial and rediscovery of Herculaneum is excitingly covered in the first five chapters, including eyewitness accounts of the fatal eruption of Vesuvius as lunches were being prepared on August 24, A.D. 79. In the next six chapters Deiss systematically tours you through Roman housing there, from top to bottom of the social hierarchy (including the astounding copy of a Roman villa Paul Getty built for himself in Malibu CA). Five more chapters take you through the public spaces and functions of the town revealed in tunnels and exposures. The book concludes with a summary of the skeletons and plans for site conservation and exploration. Yes, a few pages deal with earthy topics, just as the Romans frankly did. (I think the Getty Museum has since put out a separate book for parents of American kiddies.)

Excellent b/w photographs are found throughout. An absolutely vital aerial photograph and map is provided on p. 34 which you will want to bookmark. It's really too bad they are so tiny that a magnifying glass is needed to read the labels in order to locate the houses when their plans and ruins are discussed individually later in the text. Some locations are never identified. Larger foldout versions would be a real help in the next edition (excavations began in 1709 and new things are constantly found).

What was Really Found - Primary Source

I bought this book to find out about soap factories supposedly found on Pompeii and Herculaneum but this book discounts the theory of several other places. There's a lot of history about the dig but you get much more information about what was actually found in the digs with pictures of the artifacts in the museums. The pictures are clear and the book reads very well. Lots of discussion about the various shops. Doesn't leave anything out. Does discuss the eros side a little. Not a good book for teachers of young students because of various images but overall an excellent secondary source of info with pictures from a primary source.