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In this scenario students investigate the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius by reading eyewitness accounts and archaeological presentations.
From the evidence they develop chronologies, reconstruct the final
moments of Herculaneum and Pompeii and of individual victims, survey
the variety of physical remains of the cities and historic conclusions
that can be drawn. Students learn enough about the events of A.D.
79 and their archaeological recovery that they are able to put themselves
into a fictional account of the experience. As a context for their
research, students are given the following situations from which
they choose one:
- You are an eyewitness to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Assume
the persona of a Roman—wealthy, poor, merchant, laborer,
soldier, slave, visitor—and describe your firsthand experiences
and those of your family, friends, or other residents between
August 24th and 25th, A.D. 79. Remind students that if they are
a sailor on Plinys’ boat, a civic leader, or a Pompeian slave-girl,
for example, they cannot discuss the eruption with the terminology
or the cold scientific understanding of a modern archaeologist—especially
when friends, family and country are involved! Furthermore, the
persona that the student assumes does not have to have survived
the experience.
- The funding committee sponsoring your archaeological dig in the
Vesuvius area is meeting next month to decide whether or not to
continue support for your dig. Write a letter to the committee
explaining exactly what your dig is uncovering. Convince the committee
of the value and necessity of the work; urge the committee to
extend the dig’s funding by revealing some of the valuable
conclusions you are now able to make about Roman life.
These assignments are intended to provide students an opportunity
to creatively interweave factual details into a cohesive, compelling,
and credible essay and not simply retell or summarize a story in
the sources.
ACTIVITY SET 1: Comparing Vesuvius with Modern-Day Experiences
There are several preliminary activities to help students organize
the upcoming material. First, odds are that several students in
the class will have experienced disasters—earthquake, hurricane,
wildfire, etc. Those students who wish to share their stories do
so. Hearing personal experiences peaks interest and helps the class
keep in mind that, although Vesuvius is a goldmine for scientists
and archaeologists, it is fundamentally a human tragedy. This fact
is reinforced with clips of Mount St. Helens or other modern eruptions,
if available. Secondly, to consolidate the wide variety of material
they will be exposed to and as a reminder to take notes throughout
the remaining activities, students label a page in their notebook,
“Terminology and Who’s Who.” Thirdly, students receive
a blank map of the Bay of Naples to label, including Misenum (where
Pliny the Elder is stationed as admiral of Rome’s naval fleet),
Puteoli (the main commercial harbor and focus of one of the videos),
Neapolis, Herculaneum, Mons Vesuvius, Pompeii, Stabiae (where Pliny
the Elder ends up), and Capreae/Capri. The May 1984 issue of National
Geographic contains a great bird’s eye map of the area, photocopies
of which are provided to students who work in groups to quickly
label their maps. (Students can also complete their maps by following
along as the teacher labels a transparency on the overhead projector
if the magazine article is unavailable.) To check for accuracy and
to reinforce what was learned, the teacher wraps up with a quick
drill of place names.
ACTIVITY SET 2: Eyewitness Account of Pliny the Younger
Next the students work in small groups to create a chronology of
the events of the eruption based on a reading of Pliny the Younger’s
account of his famous uncle’s death in the eruption. Students
are provided a simple guide outlining the major events they should
focus on: August 24th—in the morning, at 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM,
and 11:00 PM; August 25th—at midnight, at 6:00 AM, etc. (The
class should not think that the chronology will be completed from
Pliny alone; other experts will fill in some of the gaps.) As remarkable
as a surviving eyewitness account is, it still needs introduction
since Pliny was about the students’ age when the eruption occurred,
and he is generally unknown to students. They take turns in their
groups reading the story as they begin the chronology and track
the activities of both Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger on
the map. In a personal journal entry, students react to either of
the Pliny’s experiences, write about what they think it must
have been like, or note peoples’ reactions in the crisis. Alternatively,
students can write about their own experience during a crisis, focusing
especially on the unusual ways people reacted.
ACTIVITY SET 3: Studying the Site of the Disaster
After a quick review of the Bay of Naples map, students get in groups
to focus more closely on the site of the disaster. They receive
street maps of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Next, they draw a Venn
diagram labeling one side “Pompeii,” the other “Herculaneum.”
Each group gets at least one photocopy of the three National Geographics
and other miscellaneous materials on Vesuvius that might be helpful.
However, the focus remains on the articles, which cover making plaster
casts in Pompeii, examinations of skeletons in Herculaneum, unique
discoveries, and last moments. Groups label their diagrams with
items pertaining to one city, the other, or both. The groups decide
how to share what they’ve learned from the articles, or the
teacher can prescribe a rotation, etc.
ACTIVITY SET 4: Flash Cards
From the responses on students’ Venn
diagrams, a variety of additional activities for reviewing learned
material may be constructed to use as students prepare for their
test on Vesuvius and their response to the initial assignment. For
example, each student receives several 3x5 cards. On one side they
write the name of a significant or unique discovery or event from
Pompeii or Herculaneum from their Venn
diagrams (boat, amphitheater, ashfall, skeletons, beachfront
villas, etc.). On the other side of the card they write a big P
or H. These flash cards are shuffled among the group and used for
a quick review associating events, items and places. The idea can
be expanded to include additional learned material to the mix: P
& H for items found in both Pompeii and Herculaneum; events
and discoveries from the cities of Misenum and Stabiae; the activities
of the two Plinys, etc. Alternatively, the cards can be fill-in-the-blank:
Pliny the Elder dies at ___, and so forth. Groups work first with
the cards they have created then trade with other groups. After
a few years, the teacher has quite a collection and can use these
for “Jeopardy” questions or certamen
rounds.
Finally, after reviewing with flash cards, students watch one of
the two videos on the eruption of Vesuvius, which recycles and visually
depicts most of what the students have been investigating. The class
also benefits from slides or other materials that briefly review
other topics such as geography, art (friezes, frescoes, mosaics
and statuary), city features (major homes, streets scenes, forum,
theaters, arena), individuals, daily life revealed in kitchens,
taverns, lofts and the wealth of minute treasures that make these
ancient lives come to life.
ACTIVITY SET 5: Putting it All Together
Students understanding of the topic is assessed in two ways. The
culminating product is one of the two essays mentioned at the beginning
of the scenario. Variations on those assignments provide students
an opportunity to showcase other talents as well. For some students,
a dramatic reading—eagerly anticipated and widely enjoyed by
classmates—offers an opportunity to display their presentational
skills. Small groups of students may be allowed to present their
eyewitness account through a skit. The eyewitness accounts can be
done on authentic looking “scrolls.” A young archaeologist
promoting the dig may want to combine the two assignments by being
the discoverer of the witness’ scroll and using it in his or
her pitch to the funding committee. Students may also create display
boards to illustrate the categories and richness of their exciting
new “discoveries” as they make their presentation. The
class, forming the funding committee, can vote for the top (or top
three) archaeologists making the most knowledgeable, compelling presentations,
with the top vote-getters receive various rewards (as the rest of
the rankings remain anonymous, of course).
Students are also tested over the materials learned but in ways
that require the use of higher order thinking skills, reflecting
the way the students have been preparing. Discrete items are not
ignored, but more open-ended questions requiring evaluation, analysis,
and synthesis are also needed. For example, students describe the
kinds of information gained from studying Roman skeletons, discuss
how experts in three or more scientific fields collaborated in a
Vesuvius excavation, or address how geology shaped the history of
the Bay of Naples area (from farming to tourism). Students draw
on the wealth of their investigations to respond to these questions.
- Communication:
Interpersonal, Interpretative, & Presentational Modes
- Cultures:
Practices & Perspectives, Products & Perspectives
- Connections:
Access to Information, Other Subject Areas
- Comparisons:
Concept of Culture, Influence of Language & Culture
- Communities:
Personal Enrichment & Career Development
- A translation of Pliny the Younger’s
two letters to Tacitus about the eruption
- One of the following videos: In the
Shadow of Vesuvius or Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius
- Maps of the Bay of Naples, Pompeii, and
Herculaneum (two of the three cities destroyed by Vesuvius)
- Several photocopies of three National
Geographic magazines: November 1961, December 1982, and May 1984
- Miscellaneous books or slides on Vesuvius
Communication: Students use interpersonal
mode in group work and practice activities, interpretive mode as they
read the story of Pliny the Younger and articles on the eruption,
and presentational mode for the final project or paper.
Cultures: Students learn about practices and perspectives and
products and perspectives of Imperial Rome as they read about the
eruption of Vesuvius and its aftermath. The eyewitness account provides
a “native speaker” perspective on the events.
Connections: Students use resources including technology to
gain access to information, and they connect to other subject areas
such as art and archaeology.
Communities: Students share with the teacher and classmates
any interesting information they’ve uncovered on their own (outside
of class assignments) related to the topic.
- Much has happened since the National
Geographic society visited Vesuvius: the Herculanean museum was
robbed, population estimates have been dramatically revised, Caecilius’
frieze of the earthquake of A.D. 62 was swiped, several major
books have been published, to name a few. Students may want to
investigate further and update the class on how the work has progressed.
- Because the destruction by Vesuvius can
be a moving study, some students might be inspired to write poetry.
- As a group project, students produce the
nightly news flash on the eruption, including cuts to reporters
and interviews, or perhaps a live feed to the ever-confident Pliny:
“Back to you, Marcus.”
- Advanced students read Pliny’s letters
in Latin and write an up-to-date translation with explanatory
notes and illustrations for beginning students.
- Students find examples of survivor stories
that parallel the Vesuvius eruption of A.D. 79. Famous examples
include Jack London’s account of the Great San Francisco
Earthquake and Shackleton’s trek to the South Pole.
- For students who are artistically inclined,
Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae, and the whole Vesuvius story lend
themselves very well to illustration. Students can also critique
the various famous paintings of the event for factual accuracy
and compare them to their own vision of events. For tactile learners,
there are any number of opportunities for building models such
as oil lamps, temples, painted vases and amphorae, a terrarium
in the form of a Pompeian garden, hypocaust, various road and
building construction, dioramas, frescoes, etc.
- Students depict the chronology of the
archaeology of the Vesuvius sites, from the accidental discoveries
of 1750’s and the pillaging before the birth of archaeology
in the 1860’s to the more scientific recoveries and preservation
of recent decades. Four or five well-chosen interviews would also
make a good “documentary,” à la Ken Burns.
- Pompeii had a history of strongly civic-minded
leadership, experienced in disaster management after the devastating
earthquake 17 years earlier. For instance, L. Richardson suggests
that the palaestra at the Large Theater was one of the collection
points organized for rescuing citizens as transportation became
available. In fact most scholars believe most Pompeians escaped.
Students can fill in the many hours between the first evidence
of the eruption and the point at which there is no escape, by
creating and implementing an emergency plan, or writing the journal
of a person who takes charge of the rescue efforts.
Books
Andrews, I. (1978). Pompeii. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Connolly, P. (1979). Pompeii. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Deiss, J. (1989). Herculaneum:
Italy’s
buried treasure. New York: J Paul Getty Museum Publications.
Nappo, S. (1998). Pompeii.
New York: Barnes & Noble.
National Geographic Magazine: November
1961, December 1982, May 1984.
Richardson, L. (1988). Pompeii: An architectural
history. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Bisel, S. (1990). The secrets of Vesuvius. New York: Scholastic,
Inc.
Trevelyan, R. (1976). The shadow of
Vesuvius. London: Michael Joseph Ltd.
Zanker, P. (1998). Pompeii: Public
and private life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Videos
- Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius. (1998).
Nova Video Library.
- In the Shadow of Vesuvius. (1987).
National Geographic Society.
Webliography
NOTE: These Internet
resources may have changed since publication or no longer be
available. Active links should be
carefully
screened
before
recommending to students.
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