quarta-feira, 27 de fevereiro de 2019

O Monte Vesúvio não matou todos em Pompeia. Onde os sobreviventes foram?


Mount Vesuvius Didn't Kill Everyone in Pompeii. Where Did the Survivors Go?

A victim who perished in Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
Credit: Shutterstock
Quando o Monte Vesúvio entrou em erupção em 79 d.C., a rocha derretida do vulcão, detritos abrasadores e gases venenosos mataram quase 2.000 pessoas nas antigas cidades italianas vizinhas de Pompeia e Herculano. Mas nem todos morreram. Então, onde os refugiados, que não podiam voltar para suas casas cheias de cinzas, foram?

Dado que este era o mundo antigo, eles não viajaram longe. A maioria ficou ao longo da costa sul da Itália, reassentando as comunidades de Cumae, Nápoles, Ostia e Puteoli, de acordo com um novo estudo que será publicado nesta primavera na revista Analecta Romana.. [Preserved Pompeii: A City in Ash]

Pinpointing the refugees' destinations was a huge undertaking, as historical records are spotty and scattered, said study researcher Steven Tuck, a professor and chair of classics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. To determine where people went, he devised several criteria to look for while combing through the historical record, which included documents, inscriptions, artifacts and ancient infrastructure.

For example, Tuck made a database of family names that were distinct to Pompeii and Herculaneum and then checked whether these names showed up elsewhere after A.D. 79. He also looked for signs of unique Pompeii and Herculaneum culture, such as the religious worship of Vulcanus, the god of fire, or Venus Pompeiana, the patron deity of Pompeii, that surfaced in the nearby cities after the volcanic eruption.

Public infrastructure projects that sprung up about this time, likely to accommodate the sudden influx of refugees, also provided clues about resettlement, Tuck said. That's because between 15,000 and 20,000 people lived in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the majority of them survived Vesuvius' catastrophic eruption.
One of the survivors, a man named Cornelius Fuscus later died in what the Romans called Asia (what is now Romania) on a military campaign. "They put up an inscription to him there," Tuck told Live Science. "They said he was from the colony of Pompeii, then he lived in Naples and then he joined the army."

In another case, the Sulpicius family from Pompeii resettled in Cumae, according to historical documents that detail their flight and other records, Tuck said.
"Outside the walls of Pompeii, [archaeologists] discovered a strongbox (similar to a safe) full of their financial records," he said. "It was on the side of the road, covered by ash. So clearly, someone had taken this big strongbox when they fled, but then about a mile outside the city, dumped it."
The documents in this strongbox detailed several decades' worth of financial loans, debts and real estate holdings. It appears that the Sulpicius family members chose to resettle in Cumae because they had a business social network there, Tuck said.

During his research, Tuck also found resettlement evidence for quite a few women and freed slaves. Many refugees married each other, even after they relocated to new cities. One such woman, Vettia Sabina, was buried in a family tomb in Naples with the inscription "Have" adorning it. The word "have" is Oscan, a dialect that was spoken in Pompeii both before and after the Romans took over the city in 80 B.C. "It means 'welcome,' you see it on the floor in front of houses as a welcome mat [in Pompeii]," Tuck said. [Image Gallery: Pompeii's Toilets]
The "have" inscription outside the House of the Faun in Pompeii. The same inscription was found at a family tomb in Naples, likely from a family that had escaped the Mount Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79.

O "tem" inscrição fora da Casa do Fauno em Pompeia. A mesma inscrição foi encontrada em um túmulo de família em Nápoles, provavelmente de uma família que havia escapado da erupção do Monte Vesúvio em 79 d.C.
Credit: Steven Tuck
 
No entanto, olhar para nomes de família únicos pode levá-lo apenas até o momento. "Meu estudo realmente reduz drasticamente o número de romanos que saíram", disse Tuck, já que muitos estrangeiros, migrantes e escravos não registravam nomes de família, o que dificultava o rastreamento.

Em relação à infra-estrutura pública, Tuck descobriu que o imperador romano Titus dava dinheiro para as cidades que se tornaram pontos de refugiados. Na verdade, esse dinheiro veio de Pompeia e Herculano - basicamente, o governo se ajudou com o dinheiro de quem morreu na erupção que não tinha herdeiros. Então, esse dinheiro foi dado a cidades com refugiados, embora Titus assumisse o crédito por qualquer infraestrutura pública que fosse construída, observou Tuck.

"As pessoas cujo dinheiro foi para esse fundo nunca recebem crédito", disse ele.
An inscription in Naples from Emperor Titus, taking credit for rebuilding to accommodate refugees following the volcanic eruption.

An inscription in Naples from Emperor Titus, taking credit for rebuilding to accommodate refugees following the volcanic eruption.
Credit: Steven Tuck
Despite this, the new infrastructure likely helped the refugees settle into their new homes.
"The cities Pompeii and Herculaneum were gone," Tuck said. "But the government is obviously building new neighborhoods and aqueducts and public buildings in communities where people have settled."

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