Day 7 - Herculaneum

One of the most mind boggling sites in Italy is Herculaneum along with Pompeii. Both are buried under multiple feet of rubble. Unlike Pompeii, it housed the more prominent figures of society. There were many baths that overlooked the then seaside shore, and many grand statues of ancient myths. Along with the intricate baths, there were also a surplus of mosaics and frescoes in Herculaneum. There were fancier paintings and signs of Christianity. Pompeii did not have any remains of wood like Herculaneum. Marble and brick were expensive and heavy to build with, so they sometimes used wood. There was an example of stairs from two story buildings and also wood separators in some houses. An interesting highlight came from an ancient bakery. There were mill stones that were essentially a dome shaped block of rock and another one that sat on top. The top one could move with the man power if two people, which when grain was poured in could grind to dough.

After seeing the ruins from Herculaneum, we went to the National Archaeological Museum. Statues and works of art from both Pompeii and Herculaneum were there. One renowned marble feature we found in the museum (though not necessarily from Herculaneum), was The Farnese Bull. It is a statue of a Antiope and her two sons tying her abuser, Dirce to a bull who would ultimately drag her to her death. It served as witness to fair revenge in the city. We had the opportunity to see the most artistically twisted example of Hercules (and, as a reference, that was where Farnese Bull was on display). Hercules was depicted as an older man, resting, which he never had been before. He had always been in motion. In his right hand he held his lion cloak and in his left he possessed the immortal apples of Hesperides.

In Naples we all filed around behind Mr. Whitson one at a time like ducklings. The cars and scooters did not acknowledge our presence, and I believe we all had the experience of being loudly honked a number of times. We rushed around, giving ourselves the opportunity to eat pizza at one of the oldest pizzerias in the world! Also to gain cultural knowledge other than ancient Greeks and Romans we visited a Renaissance cathedral. They used a lot of techniques like bronze and marble statues, but their designs are a bit more intricate instead of simple. Colors other than the primary red are used and embellished in gold. The overall structure also differs. The cathedral is very tall and spacious when the Ancients did not have the means or technology to create structures that tall.

Comparing different times and cities gave us more of an insight into these times. It forced us to analyze why there were differences in the structures and lifestyles. We can also take that and compare the culture differences between the Ancient worlds and ours today with the places we have seen.

Brekken Carns and Taghreed Adnan
Tesseract 9th Grade Students