Professor Wallace-Hadrill interviewed about Herculaneum at Ideas Roadshow

Theoretical structural archaeology is about understanding the evidence of ancient built environments, and previously I have written about the importance of those sites ‘frozen in time’ by some disaster preserving buildings and content in situ.

For the Roman world, Herculaneum and Pompeii give us that unique insight, a level of detail, unimaginable in conventional archaeology, which has become central to our understanding of the period.  While we are familiar with plaster body castes, dramatic reconstructions, and looming clouds of volcanic death, quite what this really means to archaeology, archaeologists and everybody else is a lot more complex, nuanced, and interesting.

12. Treasure, ruins and myths

Treasure, ruins, and myths are about as good as it gets in archaeology, and mystery is omnipresent, but of course none of these things interest professional archaeologists, not one bit, not at all. Archaeologists value things that are more rare and precious than treasure.
To find somebody’s best belongings stacked in a tomb is not that uncommon, but to find them in the space where they belong and interacted with their owner is extraordinary. The chance survival of built environments, complete with contents, is probably the most valuable type of archaeological find imaginable, and luckily, it has happened a number of times.

Roman interior design: a fresco from Pompeii