The author has been asked to present this paper to a class of fourth grade students who are reading about the city of Pompeii. W
hat would be the best opening statement to add? A. Pompeii was this old and awesome city near Naples in Italy, built at the foot of a weird mountain. B. Did you know that people found the city of Pompeii buried underground when they went digging? C. Does anyone know about Marcus from the city of Pompeii? D. Hey, kids! I can tell you all about Pompeii, if you want to know.
A Tragic Time Capsule
(1) The people of the city of Pompeii in 79 AD did not know they lived just three miles from an active volcano. (2) The earthquake that occurred in 62 AD should have been a warning to them, but the people then did not know about earthquakes and their connection to volcanoes. (3) So when the volcano erupted on the morning of August 24, 79 AD, the city was unprepared, and it was completely wiped out. (4) Actually, it was preserved, and archaeologists have been able to discover not only people but their stories as well.
(5) One such story is that of a tradesman named Marcus. (6) A bronze document was discovered by a bed at the site in 1879. (7) The Roman words etched into the document explain that Marcus served in the fleet at Misenum, a place off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. (8) He was a member of a sort of police force that kept the Mediterranean free from pirates. (9) The man was from Syria, but his service, according to the document, awarded him Roman citizenship. (10) In 79 AD, Marcus was now a respected tradesman of the community, and he produced bronze goods for sale. (11) His workshop was next to his bedroom. (12) Marcus was working in his workshop on the morning of August 24th. (13) A restaurant stood next to his workshop.
(14) When it actually erupted, the volcano spit fire 27 miles into the sky. (15) Scientists have determined that when the volcano began to erupt at one o'clock in the afternoon, it shot one cubic mile of rock and ash into the air. (16) Archaeologists have found where painters were repairing a wall in a building owned by a wealthy person of Pompeii. (17) They spilled plaster all over the wall as they ran away. (18) The plaster was perfectly preserved when the city was covered in gas and ashes.
(19) What was not destroyed or buried in the city by the volcanic eruption was destroyed by the resulting tsunami. (20) It was as if Pompeii had never existed. (21) Indeed, we may have never known what really happened to it had a group of explorers not discovered the site in 1748.
(22) Since then, archaeologists have been painstakingly uncovering Pompeii. (23) Early on, they reasoned the strangely shaped spaces found during the excavations could be filled with plaster to show what had been there. (24) It is these plaster casts that have shown the archaeologists what tragically happened to the people and how they perished. (25) This sad time capsule has served to teach the modern world about life in the ancient world.
