The Ancients19 Nov 2020

Volcanic Vineyards of Pompeii

An ancient town, buried and preserved beneath volcanic ash, Pompeii is a gift to archaeologists and historians seeking to find out more about the lives of the civilians in a regular Roman town. Beyond the well recognised plaster casts of the bodies of people and animals alike, and the structures and artwork maintained in situ, however, is evidence of a very specific system. That is the system of the cultivation of grapes and the process of extracting every usable substance from them to make wine. Positioned in the Campania region of Italy, Pompeii shared fertile soils, perfect climatic conditions and proximity to a busy sea port. The grapes of Pompeii may have ended up on the tables of the house at which they were grown; they might have been made into low quality wine for manual workers or better quality wine valued at more than the wages of many; or, they might have been shipped far and wide.

Emlyn Dodd is a Fellow at the Australian Archaeological Institute in Athens and is currently directing a survey project across Cycladic islands which, among other things, is investigating the production of wine and oil in the Classical to Late Antique eras. He spoke to Tristan about what the evidence from Pompeii tells us about grape growth and wine production there, and whether this can be scaled out to other settlements in the Roman Mediterranean.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(641)

Odyssey | Sea of Monsters & Slaughter of the Suitors

When Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, his homecoming turns into a ruthless reckoning. Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emily Hauser dive into the shocking climax of Homer’s Odyssey, where hospitality, vengea...

19 Jul 1h 8min

Caral: Oldest City in the Americas?

Long before the age of the Inca and Maya, a remarkable city once flourished on the coast of modern Peru. Founded more than five thousand years ago, the sacred city of Caral is home to monumental pyram...

16 Jul 57min

Odyssey | Cyclops, Circe and Calypso

What if the world’s most famous homecoming was really a nightmare of monsters, gods, and one very stubborn king trying to get back to Ithaca?In our new series Tristan Hughes and classicist Dr. Emily H...

12 Jul 1h 4min

Egypt's Book of the Dead

For over a thousand years, the Book of the Dead guided ancient Egyptians through the afterlife. Filled with powerful spells these remarkable texts were designed to help the dead overcome the dangers o...

9 Jul 50min

The Trojan War

The story of Achilles, Odysseus and the siege of Troy has captivated audiences for millennia, but behind the legends lies a deeper mystery. Was this epic war a myth, a memory of a real Bronze Age conf...

5 Jul 1h 9min

The Flood Myth

Thousands of years before the story of Noah and the Ark, people in ancient Mesopotamia were already telling tales of a devastating divine flood. Written into the Epic of Atrahasis, this ancient story ...

2 Jul 56min

Delphi: Centre of the Ancient World

For more than a thousand years, Delphi was considered a cultural centre of the ancient world. Every year a throng of pilgrims climbed the slopes of Mount Parnassus to seek the words of Apollo through ...

28 Jun 55min

Stonehenge with Ken Follett

What if the secrets of Stonehenge lie not just in the stones, but in the people who hauled them there?Tristan Hughes sits down with best-selling novelist Ken Follett to uncover and imagine the lives o...

25 Jun 46min