The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-10-04 00:00:00

A COMMEMORATION AT POMPEII.

The Correspondent of The Times, writing from Pompeii
on Sept. 25, gives the following description of the corn.
memorations of the 1800th anniversary of the destruction of
that city :

The heat yesterday in Naples was excessive ; the at-
mosphere was heavy and suffocating, massive thunder-
clouds were gathering over the hills, and above Vesuvius
hung a dense maim of smoke, spreadieg far away on
each side and sometimes hiding the crest of the moun-
tain. At night masses of bright flame burst forth from
the crest from time to time, aaa everything seemed to
indicate that the day chosen to commemorate the
I,Booth anniversary of the destruction of Pompeii
would be one of storm and tempest. But the sun this
morning rose en a clear sky, and by seven o'clock
people were hurrying to the railway station, and
crowded special trains for the Pompeii Station
followed each other in rapid succession, while
the road by Portici and Torre del Greco was alive
with hundreds of vehicles of all kinds, from the
corncob, with its merry load, to the handsome
equipages of the nobility. It might have been a
Neapolitan Derby day. In front of the road side
inn dignified with the title of Hotel Diomede, through
which one enters Pompeii, the road and all space
around was crowded with empty conveyances of every
description, and such motley groups as can only be
found in Neapolitan territory. Beggars of course
abounded; there were men with dancing dogs, sellers
of pulcinelle and rude toys, vendors of grapes with
their baskets heaped high with the luscious fruit,
stalls with water melons sold whole or in slices, water
carriers with their barrels on their backs, and many
others, forming a perfect Babel of never-ceasing voices.
This phase ended at the gate, through which admit-
tance was only by ticket; but 6,000 or 7,000 tickets
had been issued, and the streets of this silent city of
the past were filled with as busily moving and as gay a
crowd as circulated through them eighteen centuries
ago. We first hurried to the great basilica. It was
crowded as of yore, with the difference that the tops
of the ruined walls and columns were also occupied.
On the tribune the more distinguished guests were
assembled, and in front stood Signor Michele Ruggiero,
chief director of the excavations' who read an ad-dress,
giving a brief history of all that had been done since
the first remains of Pompeii were laid open. On a
table in front of him lay some telegrams just received.
He spoke in Italian, and was followed by Professor
Quinto Guanciali and Professor Antonio Mirabelli,
who each spoke in Latin hexameters to loud repeated
applause. On the tribune stood Signor Fiorelli, who
for so long directed the excavations of Pompeii
with such unserpaasable ability; Professor Hen-
zen, representing the German Archseologicol In-
stitute at Rome ; Senator Faschiotti, Prefect
of Naples ; Signor Bonghi, Erenest Renan, Count
Coello Spanish Minister to the Quirinal; the Portu-
guse Minister, and many others. It is strange that
the only foreign scientific body represented was the
Academy of Christophe Colomb, of Marseilles. In
the meantime the many hundreds who could not gain
an entrance to the basilica had been busy examining
various Tarts of the unearthed city. The opening
ceremonial ended, a bell rang to summon people to the
excavations. In different parts of the ninth region
ten chambers were to be opened and their contents
revealed, and there was an eager rush from all points.
It is impossible to describe the intense expectation on
every face as the first picks struck the ground, or the
scene around each place to be excavated. Crowds
were pressing round every opening; people were
perched all along the tops of the broken walls
to the eminent peril of their limbs, and
groups were thickly gathered along the higher
nnexcavated level and on every other point of vantage.
Each room to be excavated had been cleared of the
upper falling-in, leaving about 41t. to be removed.
The indications given by the preparatory work in one
of the larger rooms having been particularly favour-
able, I took my station there, and witnessed in the
course of three hours, as the various objects peeped
forth from the scoriae one by ono and were taken up,
such a revelation as I shall never forget. For the
first five minutes there was a breathless silence as the
men worked, then, as the scoriae fell away, part
of a green object became viable. In a moment
the workmen's hand had cleared the space around
it, and amid deafening cheers a small bronze
horse, 91n. in length, was held aloft. Then a
large amphora appeared; then two bronze vases,
one with handles; then a large iron key, and as each
in turn was lifted high for all to see, " BOW, belie I"
burst in a chorus of hearty satisfaction from the people.
A list, with the briefest description of the things which
then followed in rapid succession, would fill a column.
There were at least a dozen bronze vases of different
shapes, sizes, and uses, with and without handles, and
In one a number of bronze coins oxydieed together,
and many other coins were found at intervals during
the excavation. There were many handsome bronze
fibulte, several bronze bracelets, a number of rings,
many terra-cotta vases, trizze, and amphoras, and a
remarkable number of little terra-cotta water cups
for bird cages, various kitchen utensils, a spit,
forks and knives of iron, a bronze bottle, a number
of little bronze bells, a dagger with ivory handle,
a knife with ivory handle, a bronze casserole,
and a terra-cotta money-box. After these and
many more objects, of which tray full after tray
full was carried away, had been taken out, a mass
of black material appeared, which, falling to pieces,
proved on examination to be beans, then a quantity
of millet and hemp seeds, with considerable remains
of the sacks which had contained them, the carbonized
wood of grain bins and of a barrel with iron hoops
and great masses of the beams of the upper floor, suf-
ficiently solid, but entirely carbonised like charcoal.
Among these remains a splendid bronze candelabrum
was come upon, but its tall, slender, fluted stem was
broken. In short, from noon till three o'clock a con-
tinued succession of objects were revealed, almost
more rapidly than I could note them down. The mere
names and briefest memoranda filled sixteen pages in
a large note book. Some of the rooms revealed noth-
ing, others a few bronze and terra-cotta vessels; but
in ouc room a skeleton was found, and in the smallest
chamber opened four were discovered huddled together.

Under the head of "A Pompeian Bird•shop," in
another letter written on Sept. 26 the same corre-
spondent writes
"Among the multitude of objects found in the chamber
which yielded such fruitful results yesterday there was
nothing of material or great artistic value. There were no
gold or silver ornaments; nothing which might have decked
toe person of a Julia or lons, or gratified the Athenian re-
finement of a Glaucus; but I can scarcely believe it possible
that any excavation has ever been made among these
wondrous ruins which in the short space of three hours
revealed so complete a picture of Pompeian his, or perhaps
I should say of a Pompeian interior. And it was made
doubly interesting by the more than strange contrast
the scene afforded. I have told you how the people
were gathered around, on the level of the street,
on the banks of scoria above, on every spot along
the tope of the ruined walls—wherever, in abort, they
could clamber and fled foothold or sitting room. Excavations
have of course been made here again and again in the pre-
sence of many persons, and particularly when chambers
have been expressly opened far the gratification of some
Royal or distinguished visitor. On such occasions the
spectators sat around at their ease and looked on, as if,
indeed, Pompeii had been destroyed and that particular
chamber had remained hurled for their especial benefit;
but yesterday another sentiment prevailed; the persons of
higher social and political rank had to take their chance in
the crowd with the rest, It was a population of the 19th
century pressing eagerly and anxiously forward with
wondering eyes to see material pages of the history of a
people or the first century unfolded one by one before
them.
"No sooner was the excavation of this chamber com-
menced than, as I have already told you, a st unbar of bronze
and terra-cotta vessels, bronze fibula:), bracelets and rings,
iron keys, kitchen utensils, and other articles of household
use were found almost In a heap together war the door, and
among them a considerable numbto of tTht gytbc.,uware
L' WWII I sannenttat increttutali Mast maim al

.

drinking cups for birds; but there soon followed abundant
' proof that this had been the shop of a seed merchant and
seller of singing birds, and very little imagination was re-
quired to see the place as it was the day before the fatal
eruption of 79. At first the room seemed to have been a
mere receptacle for a miscellaneous colleation of bronze
and earthenware objects. There was no special eha-
racier about it. The walls bare no traces of
painting, but, as the clearing was continued, to
the left of the door on entering a heap of millet seed was
found, so carbonized that on taking up a handful it flowed
between one's fingers, for every grain was separate and
distinct. It was taken away in baskets fall. Close to this a
quantity of hempseed, and of what appeared to be small
beans in the same well-preserved condition, were found,
and among them considerable fragments of the sacks in
which they had been kept, the fibre and texture clearly dis-
tinguishable. Behind these heaps and against the wall
more seed was dug out, mixed with pieces of carbonized
wood, iron hinges, and nails, and some iron hoops, evidently
the remains of small barrels and bins which had been ranged
on this side, while along the opposite wall a double row of
terra-cotta olio for holding grain was gradually revealed.
Suddenly there arose a cry, un owe,' 'ten acheletro,' and
the excitement became intense but the bones were
small —at first they seemed mere fragments, and
then the Director exclaimed, amid quickly follow-
ing laughter, 'A chicken.' Here the filling in had
become somewhat solidified, and as it broke apart a com-
plete skeleton was revealed. It was that of a little singing
bird, entirely embedded in the Mall, and near it were
fragments of other tiny bones. There could no longer be
any doubt that the use of the little terra-ootta pots had
been correctly described. It became clear why so many of
them were found there, and that the number of plain
bronze rings of about an inch and a halt in diameter, and
pieces of fine chainwork discovered, had been used for
hanging birdcages. But what connexion had all those
bronze vessels and ornaments near the door with a seed and
bird seller's shop? This also soon became evident. As the
excavators continued further into the room, great masses of
carbonized beams of wood were found, each somewhat
inclined downwards, and among them a quantity of
fragments of intonaco and stucco wall-fatoing, coloured
porphyry with a border of green and white. These were at
once seen to be the remains of the floor of the room above
with some of the plastering of its walls, and from the direc-
tion in which the beams were lying, it was evident the
floor had given way in the middle and towards the door of
the shop below, precipitating the greater part of the con-
tents of the upper room in that direotion, the remainder
falling towards the middle, and it was here the elegant
lone-stemmed candelabrum was found among the masses
and fragments of carbonized wood. Did the worthy bird.
seller live above his shop? Did this candelabrum and the
various bronze vases and other utensils horm part of his
domestic furniture? Who can tell? They were elegant
in form, but for the most part nnornamented, and
not out of character with the requirements ot a
person of that condition. There were some finger rings of
bronze, but none of richer material: there was a stria
with a plain handle' there were women's bracelets and
fibulae of delicate workmanship, but only of bronze, some
glass beads, and a delicate blue glass cup broken in pieces.
The smaller terra-cotta vessels were all of the plainest work-
manship. Among them were three small amphorss with
fiat bottoms for standing on the table, and the bronzes were
of the variety of size and form adapted to household pur-
poses. Some were like jugs with one handle, °thesis were
In the form of flat oval tame with two handles, and one of
these had two others of smaller site lying within it. There
was one the exact counterpart of a pint-pot, several of Xat
shape like casseroles with a strait handle en one aide, and
some without handles like deep bronze soup plates.
"Among other things I have not mentioned found in this
room were a number of small bronze bells slightly depressed
Into a triangular form, like the tiny gold bells found on the
Bequiline some years back, and which is so well-known as
the Margherita bell from the number of copies made
for eardreps; two double bronze inkstands, the chain and
other fragments of a balance, a bone paper-cutter—a knife
of large size, with a bent blade like those used by gardeners
—a small square Corinthian pilaster cap of marble and in
one corner of the shop against the wall the remains of a
mensola. It may interest archmologists if I mention that
the excavation was made in the insula parallel to that
numbered 5 in the north region, according to liorelli's plan,
and the shop is entered from the Decumanus Major, com•
monly known as the Strada de Nola, leading to the gate of
that name.

"With the completion of this and the other excavations,
the proceedings of this deeply interesting day terminated,
and as the many present locked out to their carriages or to
find places In the trains, they were presented with copies of
Signor Ruggiero's address in an elegant cover ornamented in
the Pompeian style and the title printed in Pompeian letter-
ing; and a copy also of the Latin hexameters by Professor
Antonio Mirabelli, entitled 'Ruins Pompeian," and by
Professor Quintino Guanciali, entitled Pompetum.' In
further commemoration of the day a large octavo volume
has been printed oontaining dissertations by illustrious
Italian archteologists upon various themes concerning
Vesuvius and the region buried in 79 1D , and a full de-
scription of the excavations made in Pompeii carried down
to the year 1878."