The day a guy at the Pompeii site showed me how to date plaster layers

I was on a dig near Pompeii last fall, just a volunteer thing I signed up for on a whim. We were working on a small residential building that had been buried in ash, and I kept noticing these weird color bands in the wall plaster. An Italian archaeologist named Marco walked over and said, 'You're looking at a timeline, not just paint.' He pointed out that each layer of plaster corresponded to a different repair job over maybe 50 years. I had always thought Roman walls were just one coat and done, but he showed me how the layers could be matched to known volcanic eruptions and earthquake repairs. Blew my mind honestly. Has anyone else run into stratigraphy in wall finishes that told a story like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinc606d ago

Yeah I used to think roman plaster was just slapped on once and forgotten. Seeing those layers really changes how you look at an old wall, makes you realize how much history is hiding in plain sight.

lisab326d ago

Wait, they actually added 14 separate layers?