TO DIG UP RUINS OF MUMMIFIED CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18189, 23 June 1927, Page 5

TO DIG UP RUINS OF MUMMIFIED CITY.

HERCULANEUM MAY YIELD GREAT TREASURE. After a lapse of nearly 2000 year c the city of Herculaneum, which was buried in an eruption of Vesuvius in A.D 79. is to be excavated by the Italians. Mussolini has given the order. From an archaeological point of view Herculaneum is quite unique (says Sir Charles Waldstein in an interview at Home). It was not by any means an important place in the ancient world; nevertheless there is every” reason to believe that it contains treasures of art and literature far more valuable than those in any of the great centre* which flourished at the same period in history. A single villa excavated at Herculaneum in the eighteenth century yielded greater treasure in original bronzes and ancient manuscripts than all the excavations at Athens, Rome or Alexandria. What are the grounds for the high hopes we have for the excavations which are about to begin? First, the manner in which Herculaneum was buried. The more suddenly a city is buried, the more chance there b for future generations to find the life of it fixed and preserved. The burial of Herculaneum was sudden and complete. and this was not the case with any of the neighbouring cities, not even Pompeii. How Herculaneum was Buried. Pompeii is about 52 ’’“s from the foot of Vesuvius, but . ulaneum is only’ 4£. Pompeii was i uried to a depth of about 20 feet under a shower of ashes and pumice stone w'hich blew out of the crater. The inhabitants had good reason to hope that the city might be saved, and many of them lingered on in their cellars and elsewhere. They had plenty’ of time to remove their valuables, but with Herculaneum it was quite different. The city was suddenly overwhelmed by a mass of liquid mud and ashes mixed with water. The inhabitants fled before the advancing peril, leaving their property behind them. Unlike the Pompeiians they could not dig their way back to their houses when the eruption w’as over, because the entire city was submerged, in some places to a depth of eighty feet. Every ancient city, except those around Vesuvius, has passed through the dark periods of warfare and destruction. When we come to think of the sieges, the pillagings, the sackings and burnings which great cities like Rome or Byzantium have undergone, we can hardly be surprised that archaeologists can scarcely find a trace of their former treasures. And what man spares Nature destroys on her own account.

An Embalmed City. By an absolutely’ unique set of circumstances, Herculaneum has escaped this common fate. Struck down in the full beauty” and vigour of her vouth. she was embalmed as perfectly’ and completely as the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt. The tide of liquid mud and ashes which overwhelmed the city” advanced slowly, pressing gently” through the windows and doors of the houses so as to cause no breakages. 11 l>ecame a sort of matrix round the objects of furniture, preserving them from corroding moisture and from chemical disintegration. So perfect a preservative was it that several of the bronzes found in Herculaneum might have just left the sculptor’s hands. Even the manuscripts found there were legible after special treatment. Perhaps it is the chance of discovering some of the missing classics in Herculaneum that is the most exciting prospect of all. The whole educated world has been enthusiastic alx>ut the remarkable manuscripts found in the tombs of Egypt, and no doubt manymore will come to from the same

source, but Egyptian manuscripts can only be found in fragments be« ause of the way they- were used in tombs. It is quite different in the case of Herculaneum. In one villa a complete library- of 800 manuscripts was discovered. It was particularly” unlucky that the owner happened to be a man who specialised in Epicurean philc»sophy—and in the dullest of the Epicurean writers at that. Hope of Literary Treasures.

But not every-one in Herculaneum Was such a specialist. Who knows what awaits us in the other private libraries of the city?

All the Greek tragedies and comedies may be there in their com pleteness. The missing woTks of Plato, the lost books of Livy may at last come to light. It is even possible that we may find letters and records referring to the earliest days

of Christianity. The presence of these libraries brings us to another point of difference between Herculaneum and Pompeii. Pompeii was a thriving provincial town, commercial in tone and character. Not a single fhanuscript has l>een found in it. and the only tablets discovered were those of an auctioneer. But Herculaneum was not commercial town at all; it was a seaside resort for many of the leaders of the Roman world who built their villas at its walls. To excavate Herculaneum will be an immense task, but not an impossible one, as it was long imagined to be. A subsequent eruption of Vesuvius spread a coating of lava on top of the mud. which buried the city in 79 A.D., and for hundreds of years it was thought that the town was sealed up in solid rock. Fortunately this is not the case. When once the outer crust of lava has l>een pierced, vertical shafts can easily •be sunk. Then by tunnelling horizontally’ the whole of Herculaneum can be excavated bit by bit, while the modern town of Resina rests securely’ on the lava above it.