I like the direction archaeology is heading. It used to be that folks looked only for treasure. You found treasure in the vast palaces of the ruler. Maybe also where they buried the sucker. It was fun to dig there. Gold! Grants! Exhibits worldwide!
I’m one of those people for whom the powerful and wealthy hold no particular interest. I mean, can you name even one of those overcompensated Goldman Sachs wonks who brought down the entire economy last time by making gambling instruments out of poor people’s mortgages? I doubt it. They are not interesting people in the least (except to the government, who rewards them with sacks of money so they can try again.)
Archaeologists are wising up to this view. They’re starting to bring alive the more interesting parts of the city; the brothels, the slaughterhouses, the little shops and cafes that fed the people who maintained the fabric of the village core.
And now, for a price, you can join the scholars and learn about the real folk while they do.
Yes, this morning in a flurry of twitterings, I learned from Napoli Unplugged of the Pompeii Food and Drink Project in which you pay “to explore the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy, as a research participant in an ongoing noninvasive (that means no digging) study with a staff of historians, architects, and classicists.”
These kinds of experiences are quite enlightening—with prices commensurate with the degree of potential enlightenment. Expensive, yet you won’t likely get the opportunity to do this kind of thing again in your life without spending four years in school—and you’ll have tales to tell your friends that will make you the envy of your social group, even if it is only made up of people on facebook you haven’t actually met.
Anyway, check out Pompeii Food and Drink Project
I’ve decided to illustrate this post with a picture of nearby Naples, where food is an art practiced not by the elite, but by your ordinary folk who talk mostly with their hands. This is Russortaggi. Who in his right mind would rather shop at Safeway?
