Pompeii / Edition 1

by Alison E. Cooley, Thomas Harrison, Duncan Garrow, Michele George

Overview

Pompeii is Italy's third most popular tourist attraction, with millions of visitors each year. Images of the town are familiar all around the world. But even today our picture of the site is being changed by new archaeological discoveries. The concerns and techniques of today's archaeologists are far removed from those of the earliest excavators. Before turbaning to the cultural and political background behind the site's rediscovery in 1748, Alison Cooley examines whether it really did remain undisturbed up to that point. In the second half of the nineteenth century the fall of the Bourbon monarchy dramatically heralded a new era of archaeological exploration under the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli. And in the twentieth century excavation transformed our image of the urban environment of Pompeii, raising new questions as it dug ever deeper. This book explores the impact of scientific advances, archaeological innovations, and contemporary politics upon interpretations of Pompeii over the last 250 years, including the ways in which advances in volcanology have transformed our picture of its last moments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780715631614
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/2003
Series:	Archaeological Histories
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Alison E. Cooley is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	7
	List of Illustrations	8
	Introduction	11
1.	Prologue to the Nightmare	17
2.	The Nightmare Revealed	36
3.	A Broken Sleep	50
4.	The Reawakening	65
5.	The Politics of Archaeology	80
6.	Probing Beneath the Surface	97
7.	Probing Ever Deeper	113
	Notes	127
	Further Reading	149
	Glossary	155
	Timeline: Events relating to the destruction, rediscovery, and excavation of Pompeii	156
	Key figures in the history of Pompeii's excavation	157
	Index	158

Editorial Reviews

Cooley's is the first comprehensive overview of the history of the Pompeii excavations, and the discussion of the casual explorations of the site that seem to have occurred prior to the official beginning in the mid-18th century presents material that few of us have ever examined.” —New England Classical Jourbanal

“This book is a thought-provoking addition to the growing number of books on Pompeii and will be of great interest to professionals and amateurs alike, and especially invaluable to historians, who rely in great part upon the archaeological record.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“A valuable and timely consideration of the often overlooked history of the excavations and an examination of the factors that influence modern perceptions of the site.” —The Jourbanal of Roman Studies

“A book that provides an important summary of key periods of excavation, and will prove a very useful addition for the teaching of Pompeii in schools and at university.” —The Classical Review

From the Publisher