Life and Death in Pompeii on film

In 2013, the British Museum staged an exhibition dedicated to the daily lives of the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum and how they were snuffed out by the eruption of Vesuvius. Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum was a blockbuster, selling more than 50,000 advance tickets and drawing crowds of visitors flocking to see the more 250 artifacts from the British Museum’s collection and on loan from the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples and Pompeii. The show feature some iconic pieces — the fresco portrait of baker Terentius Neo and his wife, the “CAVE CANEM” mosaic of a guard dog from the House of Orpheus, the sculpture of Pan having sex with a goat, the plaster cast of a dog writhing in its final agony — as well as lesser known but no less remarkable survivors, like a carbonized cradle, a loaf of bread, a life-sized bronze hare mould used to make cakes or terrines.

A private tour of the show was broadcast in movie theaters at the time. The hour-and-a-half film walks viewers through the exhibition guided by curators and experts including Mary Beard and Giorgio Locatelli. It covers the history of the towns’ destruction, the last two days of their ancient existence

It’s got a sexual content warning because of the many explicit artifacts typifying Roman frankness about sexuality that were found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Mary Beard discussing whether a third figure in a fresco of a couple in a reverse cowgirl posture was part of a threesome or an ignored slave or a voyeur is good clean fun, as far as I’m concerned, as is her discussion of the triple-phallus wind chime ( “phalluses to the power of x” “with bells on!”) and the one about the “more hardcore” Pan-goat statue.

Seven years later, the British Museum has uploaded the complete film to its YouTube channel. It’s one hour and 27 minutes long and even so not nearly long enough for me. They should have made it a mini-series. Pompeii Live is free to view, of course, but like so many of its brethren, the museum has been hard-hit by the extended closure, so if you’d like to help support it, donate here

Tools hidden by prisoners found at Auschwitz

A cache of objects hidden by prisoners has been discovered under cellblock 17 of the Auschwitz main camp. Block 17 has been undergoing renovations since September in preparation for a new exhibition dedicated to Austrian citizens who were imprisoned and murdered at the extermination camp. The aim was to remove non-original construction elements added to the building in 1978 when the Austrian exhibition was first installed there, while preserving the national exhibition itself which was developed with the priceless contributions of Auschwitz survivors who are now no longer with us. In the process the work crew discovered unexpected original features which altered the renovation plans.

Come March and Poland’s implementation of stringent anti-coronavirus measures, renovations continued with a drastically reduced crew focusing solely on ensuring the structural safety of the building. They were shoring up the original masonry when they discovered a chimney flue. Underneath it were a wealth of objects hidden by prisoners: scissors, spoons, forks, knives, hooks, leather scraps, parts of shoes and cobbler’s tools.

The National Fund’s structural consultant, master builder Ing. Johannes Hofmeister, believes that it is no coincidence that a chimney was used as a hiding place in the very building where chimney sweeps were accommodated. It is likely that people with special manual skills were housed in the building. Survivor testimonies indicate that there were a number of workshops in the cellar where, for example, baskets were woven.

In the absence of an in-depth analysis by historians and conservators, it is still too early to discuss how they were used and the possible intentions of the prisoners – conceivable examples include making and repairing clothes, locksmithing or to prepare for an escape. It is also possible that the scissors and cutlery were used to barter with other prisoners.

The new exhibition is scheduled to open in 2021. The objects discovered under the flue are not expected to go on display when the Block 17 exhibition reopens. They have been transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum for conservation.

Snake fossil found to be boa with infrared vision

The Messel Pit in Hesse, Germany, was a quarry mined for coal and shale from the mid-1800s until 1971. Fossils were found there beginning in 1900, but the pit could not be scientifically explored until after mining ended. The fossils were preserved in the anoxic environment created when layers of decaying vegetation and mud were deposited on the bed of an ancient lake. Because of the unique conditions of the lake and the shale formation 47 million years ago, Messel Pit fossils are of exceptional diversity and so well-preserved that fur, feathers, scales, stomach contents, even multiple pairs of turtles frozen in the act of mating have been unearthed there. It is one of the richest fossil repositories, the richest source of early mammal fossils and the greatest source of information about the Eocene epoch in the world.

Quarrying left a crater 200 feet deep that some people thought would make an awesome landfill. After much protest at this ruinous plan, in 1991 the government of Hesse bought the pit and made it a protected cultural monument.  It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and is now operated by the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research.

Among the rare fossils that have been found in unusual number are complete snake skeletons from four species. Two of them are small, around 20 inches long, but one of them, Palaeopython fischeri, could reach lengths of more than six feet. Named after Joschka Fisher, Hesse’s Minister of the Environment in the 80s and 90s who was instrumental in the conservation of the Messel Pit, the snake was classified as a member of the Palaeopython genus, but a new study has found it is actually an Eoconstrictor, a relative of modern boa constrictors.

A detailed analysis of the neurological pathways of Eoconstrictor fischeri revealed another surprise. The neurological pathways of the Messel snake are comparable to those of the recent large boas and pythons – snakes that possess so-called “pit organs.” These organs are located between the scales of the upper and lower jaws and allow the snakes to generate a three-dimensional heat image of their surroundings by combining visible light and infrared radiation. This enables the reptiles to more easily detect prey animals, enemies, or hiding places.

“However, in Eoconstrictor fischeri these organs were only present on the upper jaw. Moreover, to our surprise there is no evidence that this snake preferred warm-blooded prey. Until now, we could only confirm cold-blooded prey animals such as crocodiles and lizards in its stomach and intestinal contents,” adds [paleoherpetologist Dr. Krister] Smith [of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum].

The team of scientists therefore assumes that the earliest pit organs served to generally refine the snakes’ sensory perception and – other than in modern constrictor snakes – were not primarily used for hunting or defense purposes.

The study has been published in the journal Diversity and can be read in full here. If you’ve never seen a fossil of a complete snake skeleton before, you’re in for a treat. Look at this badass:

Early Iron Age burial found in France

Archaeologists have discovered the early Iron Age burial of a richly adorned woman in the town of Saint-Vulbas, eastern France. The older woman was found on her back, arms beside the body, an intact pot to the right of her head. She wore bracelets on each wrist made of alternating glue and green glass beads and copper alloy disks. The belt around her waist, probably made of leather, was covered in hemispherical copper alloy studs and closed with a copper alloy buckle.

While the tomb had collapsed over the centuries, it was possible to reconstruct its original shape: a rectangular pit containing the body of the deceased in a wooden coffin wedged into place by five smooth stones. The coffin had long-since decomposed, but its imprint remains on the soil. Fragments of the wood preserved under the body indicate that the coffin was made of oak.

The excavation of 2.5 acres slates to become an industrial park revealed a vast Iron Age burial ground. Three circular enclosures dating to the first half 8th century B.C. are believed to have been mounds originally. A cremation burial was found in the center of one of them. Near one of the enclosures, a funerary monument was built in the late 5th century B.C. It was a roofed structure on four posts features surrounded by a square enclosure.

In the middle of the enclosure is a pit with two separate deposits of cremated remains. A box of rigid organic material, likely wood, contained a selection of bones, washed after the cremation, and copper alloy filiform bracelets. The box was lined with limestone slabs. The second deposit contains bones, fragments of copper bracelets and an iron belt clip placed inside a flexible  container, probably a basket. The adornments suggest the deceased was a woman.

Remains of first Englishman in Japan identified

The remains of William Adams, the first Englishman known to have set foot in Japan and the inspiration for the John Blackthorne character in James Clavell’s novel Shōgun, have been formally identified 400 years to the day after his death. The remains were discovered in July of 2017 at the William Adams Memorial Park in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture.

The location of William Adam’s grave has been subject of extensive debate. A tomb was built for him at his fief in Hemi (modern-day Yokosuka City), but he died in Hirado and there’s a grave marker atop Sakigata Hill where he was rumored to have been buried. A small urn containing his remains were found near the marker.

The skeletal remains were in very poor condition. They had been moved into the urn in the 1930s after centuries spent in high acidic soil. Only 5% of the bones survived, but usable DNA was extracted. DNA analysis by University of Tokyo researchers found that the bones belonged to a northern European male who was between 40 and 59 years old at the time of his death. Radiocarbon dating put that time somewhere between 1590 and 1620.

Armed with that data and through process of elimination, researchers were able to officially confirm the bones belonged to William Adams.

At least eight other Englishmen were known to have died in Hirado around the same time, although an investigation by the Tokyo-based William Adams Club has ruled out the remains as those of another Englishman.

Foreigners were buried in their own cemetery in the port town, while Adams had asked to be interred on the top of a hill with a view of the ocean. Japanese records show that he obtained – either by purchasing or as a gift – a small plot of land at the top of Sakigata Hill sometime around 1613.

Adams was born in 1564 in Gillingham, Kent, and was became an apprentice to shipwright Nicholas Diggins when he was 12 years old. Twelve years later in the momentous year of 1588, Adams emerged from his apprenticeship an expert mariner and joined the Royal Navy. He served under Sir Francis Drake as captain of the supply ship Richarde Dyffyld, a merchant vessel that had been commandeered for the war.

He then turned his piloting talents to private ends, working for the Barbary Company which traded in cloth and sugar. In 1598, he was hired by a precursor of the Dutch East India Company to command a fleet of five ships on an epic journey to the Spice Islands via South America. It was a disastrous voyage. Hundreds of crewmen died crossing the Atlantic, the Straits of Magellan and the Pacific.

In April 1600, 24 survivors, including William Adams, anchored their limping vessel off the island of Kyushu after almost 20 months at sea. Only nine of the men would live to set foot Japanese soil. They were all imprisoned in Osaka Castle by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, already the de facto ruler of Japan and soon-to-be shogun.

Ieyasu came to value Adams as a shipwright, diplomat, trader, interpretor and personal friend. Already in 1602 the shogun ruled that Adams, who had a wife and child in Japan, was not permitted to leave the country. Ieyasu granted Adams the two swords of the samurai and a new name and identity, Miura Anjin. He served the Ieyasu as hatamoto, a samurai retained in the direct service of the shogun. Adams built Western-style ships for the shogun and played a crucial role in negotiating the first treaty between Japan and Britain in 1613. After then, he was allowed to leave Japan for trade missions in East Asia. Adams never returned to England. He died on May 16th, 1620.