Pompeii

Jun 9

The lifestyle, the place, the disaster.

By Evan Strauss

We did a day trip to Pompeii, and while we were in Pompeii, we learned so much about the history and lifestyle of the people who lived there—and most importantly, the disaster.

At the entrance to Pompeii, there were two wide doors. We soon learned that one was for carriages and people, and the other was for donkeys, mules, and horses.

Once inside, we immediately noticed something unusual: the streets were dug out, and there were stepping stones to cross them. The reason why is pretty disgusting—it’s because back then, they didn’t have any plumbing, so people would throw their waste into the streets. To cross, people hopped across the stones, and the carriages were specially made to go over the top and between the gaps.

You can also tell whether a street was for pedestrians or carriages by looking at the cobblestones. Carriage streets have ruts worn into them from years of use.

One of the funniest things in Pompeii was the good luck charms everywhere (don’t ask me what that means)—on buildings, in mosaics, sculpted, and even painted.

As we continued exploring, we saw little house-like structures and later learned they were actually shops. You can tell the difference between a house and a shop by a small line in the stone at the entrance of shops.

Some shops sold food, and those had embedded pots in the counter to store it. Another type of food place was the bakery, and in the baker’s shop, they had a small mill in the kitchen. To grind grain, they used a donkey that would walk around it, which meant there was a small room in the back with many animals.

The pigments we saw everywhere had different costs depending on the color and how rare the ingredients were. From least expensive to most expensive it’s:
Black
White
Purple
Blue
Red

Then we went to the baths, where they had invented one of the first heated floors. The way the floors worked was by having tubs of water below with a fire underneath, which created steam and heated the floors.

We also came across casts of victims in their original positions and learned about how they died and where they were found.

By the time we left, our legs ached and we were so tired—but it was a really cool and interesting experience, and it taught us a lot about ancient history. Seeing the ruins was really fun and interesting but it also reminds us how things can change fast

Personal Note:

Our day trip to Pompeii was amazing and cool to see the life styles of the people that lived there.