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Back to Pompeii and Herculaneum once again ... a market center and a quiet resort ... overshadowed by a dormant and not to be feared Mount Vesuvius. The opposite was true. The volcanic ashes once deposited so long ago had produced fertile soil which now grew luscious grapes and rich flavored wine.
Then ... one day in August of 79 AD ... the animals began behaving strangely. The birds no longer sang. All the cats left town. The dogs began barking without reason. I digress for a slight second. Did someone once say we were smarter than animals? Puh-leeze.
August 20th. An earth tremor shakes Pompeii ... sounds like distant thunder fill the sky. And then all is quiet ... till August
24 ... when suddenly ... a mighty explosion ... the ground shakes violently ... broad sheets of fire are rising out of Vesuvius followed by a mushroom cloud of soil and ash and pumice and more.Disaster! The citizens drop everything. The flee en-masse. Over the roads and building debris and fallen bodies ... carrying what little they could gather in the scant moments they gleaned before the headlong rush to save their skins.
But some hesitate too long. They look for family. They look for prized possessions. They look for their jewels. Gems and gold are materials for barter any place in the world. A blanket of stifling ashes envelopes the stragglers. Hails of stone bombard those attempting to flee. Poisonous gases overcome those who have escaped so far. Mudslides bury forever the bodies of the fallen.
Later ... much later ... in the early 1700's ... treasures begin to emerge from these long forgotten graves. I have a picture of one. A hapless victim of the catastrophe ... caught and buried in that mudslide of so long ago ... his/her skeletal fingers still adorned with gem laden rings ... a last effort perhaps ... to carry something of value that might be worth money for food when one had nothing else.
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And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark
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