Archaeologists work with shovels, tweezers and brushes to research the cultural development of humanity. But you can also put it more elegantly: “Archaeology is looking at ourselves from the distance of time.”
And that’s exactly how Gabrielzuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park and best-selling author, writes. He takes the readers by the hand, leads them through the alleys and houses of Pompeii and lets them participate in the life of the city’s residents with gripping linguistic skills. In the summer of 79, they had no idea of the approaching catastrophe, “when the gods left the world”. And that’s what this book is actually about: it’s a beautifully written story about people and religions.
The journey begins in the red light district of Pompeii, in taverns and brothels. The murals are custom paintings of that time. zuchtriegel, meanwhile, describes the often more important, inconspicuous graffiti on the house walls – and warns readers about the obscene language. “Sodom and Gomorrah” is carved into a house wall for a reason.
People’s interactions with each other were tough. The poor and unfree, the majority of the population, did not have a good life. “And so it happened that a revolutionary doctrine that turned all the values of the existing order on their head found open ears,” explainszuchtriegel. And then he delves deeply into the history of the origins of religions, into the coming, going and transformation of goddesses and gods, into sacrificial cults and rituals. He describes the natural coexistence of people with divine beings who also populated the earth as a “living community”. And now the book becomes an addictive “page turner”. As you read it, you wish that the last page didn’t come so soon. And then – oh shock – after turning the page it becomes clear: That was just the last page. Assuming that the following sources decline in terms of their literary quality, there is only one solution: the reviewer simply starts again from the beginning, quietly browsing happily and hoping for the author’s next book. Barbara Ritzert
Gabriel breeding bar
Pompeii’s Last Summer – When the Gods Left the World
Propyläen Verlag, 320 pages, € 33.–
ISBN 978-3-549-11000-3