Now that
the sites have been excavated, they are exposed to the elements. The reason
everything in the city was so wonderfully preserved was that it was underground.
Some weathering and erosion is natural. Several structures have collapsed, and
others are unstable so they are closed to the public. However, there are many other factors
attacking the artifacts. Uncovering the artifacts leads to the need to protect
them in other ways.
One of the biggest changes between being
buried and being excavated is light. The detail, color and vibrancy of paintings,
frescoes and sculptures began to fade in the natural light. Flash photography
can also cause a decrease in clarity, which is why it also is not allowed in
museums and historic sites. Luckily, this problem is relatively simple to resolve.
There are organic methods, which were effective early on, and now a modern
method with aluminum and plastic are use with even better results. Unfortunately,
I couldn’t find much detailed information about the techniques used.
Another factor
that is not underground is plants. The soil is very fertile and the city is in
a temperate are so many plants thrive in the area. Henri de Saint-Blanquette
has identified thirty-one parasitic plants in Pompeii. These plants grow in
patches, use up the resources in the ground until it is bare earth, then spread
out and search surroundings for new fertile ground. They attack buildings and
dislodge tiles and mosaics. One culprit, one found in many places, is ivy. It climbs
up walls, the root slowly tearing apart the foundations. In the parts of the
city with higher levels of tourist visits, the large number of feet tramples
the plants, so this is more of a problem in closed off areas. It is severely
damaging the buildings. Plants are
not the only living thing attacking the ancient city; animals do their share of
damage as well. Feral dogs have been removed. Hundreds had lived on the site in
the 1980’s and ended up damaging footpaths, roads and walls. There were also
issues with them being less than friendly to tourists.
Humans are another creature causing
damage. Both purposeful and accidental human activities are the main factors in
the decline of the city. A big one that is hard to avoid and fix is tourism. There
are 2.5 million visitors every year. While this is good for education, and fund
raising, the massive amount of tourists causes massive amounts of problems. One
big issue that is hard to both avoid and fix, is the erosion of footpaths, especially
in high traffic and popular parts of the city. Tourists with large heavy
backpacks bump and sometimes scrape masonry and plaster. Another problem
is from past mistakes early in the site’s history. In the early years of the
site, some of the bodies were moved and placed differently to increase funding.
Many artifacts, in the very beginnings of early excavations were dug up merely
for aesthetic and commercial value, removing them from all context and
historical meaning. In Herculaneum, another city buried like Pompeii, bronze
letters were removed from a wall, without record of their original placement,
and tourists were allowed to rearrange them to form messages.
Purposeful damage from humans,
which is often the worse and most costly, includes vandalism and theft. As far
as vandalism goes, graffiti is the most problematic. Not the spray paint
tagging many think of but pens, markers, and carvings. It appears on walls and
on paintings and frescoes. Many people also sneak mementos and souvenirs for
home by breaking off parts of the city’s structures. As we had talked about in
class, the lure of the antiquities market and the money it promises is strong. As
a result, many artifacts have been taken from the site and sold. Many frescoes
have even been picked off walls. Though the sites are guarded, are many of the
stolen artifacts are recovered, many are not and still more are damaged in the thieving process.
This is a fresco from the House of Chaste Lovers in Pompeii. In 2003, two frescoes were hacked off the walls and sold on the antiquities market. They were found months later, but many other frescoes in the house were damaged.
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“Conservation Issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum.” Wikipedia:
Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.
This is a very informative post, I was previously unaware of the challenges that plague Pompeii currently. In several museums that I have visited, they covered the written document cases with fabrics to protect the contents from light damage. It is good to know that there are solutions being worked on currently to fix this antique problem.
ReplyDeleteIt is both at once shocking and obvious that Pompeii would be a site for looting, and I did not expect the continuous recovery of stolen artifacts from the site to be so high. Typically, I think of prominent sites that are guarded, to be more difficult to steal from than just walking in with a pry bar and walking out with a painting. It is humbling to see how much damage one person can do to the past just by walking in and looking at it. Their footprints, the light they need to see by, their backpacks scratching the walls, it is a wonder that anything is left at all. On the other hand, at least humans kill ivy by stepping on it, preventing further damage from vegetation.
I did notice a few spelling errors, which caused me to go back and determine what you were trying to convey, but I was able to make out your point. I will continue to follow your posts and look forward to new and interesting data on Pompeii, which will be a perfect prelude to the lecture coming up. Overall, I enjoyed this post, and learned something new from it, which I think is the point.