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News and views from the German-language region of Europe

January 1, 2007

You think you’re in a rut?

Filed under Life in Europe

I don’t mean the way you live your life, but rut as in pothole! They had some remarkable ruts in Pompei.

The Roman city of Pompei was destroyed on August 24 in 79 A.D. by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. rut in Pompei Life in Pompei came to an abrupt halt when the city was buried in volcanic ash. Fortunately Pompei remained pretty much forgotten until a couple hundred years ago, and since Napoleon apparently did not pay much attention to it and did not cart off all its buried treasures, it is an important archaeological site with a window on the Roman world of the first century. Monica’s employer in Mobile, the Exploreum, has an exhibit starting this month on Pompei, so she wanted to see the city for herself to be better prepared for her job as a guide at the exhibit. The size of Pompei surprised us – it was larger than I thought it would be – and among other things, the city’s roads have been well preserved.

You talk about ruts! rut in Pompei I had Monica put her foot in one of them (sorry for cutting her off in the picture!). The rut in the picture is on one of the major streets through Pompei, but not the only street with ruts like this. How many carts or chariots had to be pulled down this street to sink a rut like this one into the basalt stones used as the roadbed? I am not a geologist, so I have no idea how "tough" basalt is. However, judging by the condition of our feet after walking all day on Pompei’s basalt streets, I would guess that it is pretty hard material. Most of the streets also had sidewalks, and since the streets were set a good bit lower to also function as drainage canals during rainshowers, there were crossing points with large basalt blocks set in the middle of the street, high enough for a pedestrian to get across, and with sufficient spacing to allow the chariot wheels to pass in-between. You can see a couple of those pedestrian crossing stones on either side of the rut in the picture. Quite some engineers, those first century Romans!

Paul Kieffer's blog with personal insights and news from the German-language region in Europe.

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