DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0052
22
POMPEII
conducted by means of underground passageways. The state-
ment that Herculaneum was overflowed by a stream of lava,
though frequently repeated, is erroneous.
The woodwork of buildings in Pompeii has in many cases
been preserved, but in a completely charred condition. Fre-
quently where walls were painted with yellow ochre it has
turned red, especially when brought immediately into contact
with the stratum of ashes — a change which this color under-
goes when it is exposed to heat. Nevertheless, the inference
would be unwarranted that the products of the eruption fell
upon the city red-hot and caused a general conflagration. The
Fig. 7. — Cast of a man.
fragments of pumice stone could scarcely have retained a great
degree of heat after having been so long in the air; it is evident
from Pliny’s narrative that they were not hot.
With the ashes a copious rain must have fallen; for the
bodies of those who perished in the storm of ashes left perfect
moulds, into a number of which soft plaster of Paris has been
poured, making those casts of human figures which lend a
melancholy interest to the collections in the little Museum
at Pompeii (Fig. 7). The extraordinary freshness of these
figures, without any suggestion of the wasting away after death,
is explicable only on the supposition that the enveloping ashes
were damp, and so commenced immediately to harden into a
POMPEII
conducted by means of underground passageways. The state-
ment that Herculaneum was overflowed by a stream of lava,
though frequently repeated, is erroneous.
The woodwork of buildings in Pompeii has in many cases
been preserved, but in a completely charred condition. Fre-
quently where walls were painted with yellow ochre it has
turned red, especially when brought immediately into contact
with the stratum of ashes — a change which this color under-
goes when it is exposed to heat. Nevertheless, the inference
would be unwarranted that the products of the eruption fell
upon the city red-hot and caused a general conflagration. The
Fig. 7. — Cast of a man.
fragments of pumice stone could scarcely have retained a great
degree of heat after having been so long in the air; it is evident
from Pliny’s narrative that they were not hot.
With the ashes a copious rain must have fallen; for the
bodies of those who perished in the storm of ashes left perfect
moulds, into a number of which soft plaster of Paris has been
poured, making those casts of human figures which lend a
melancholy interest to the collections in the little Museum
at Pompeii (Fig. 7). The extraordinary freshness of these
figures, without any suggestion of the wasting away after death,
is explicable only on the supposition that the enveloping ashes
were damp, and so commenced immediately to harden into a