The Range of Available Sources: Written and Archaeological

Sources of Evidence - Written

• Ancient texts – letters; poems; speeches; histories; natural histories (geographies)

• Inscriptions on buildings and statues• Business documents in the form of wax

tablets• Papyrus scrolls, mostly in Greek• Professionally painted signs• Graffiti – personal, political and

commercial• Labels on wine jars and garum jars

Sources of Evidence - Archaeological

• Buildings – houses, shops baths temples, workshops, theatres, amphitheatre, markets

• Monuments – statues, tombs, commemorative arches• Decorative features – wall paintings, floor mosaics• Public utilities – water pipes, fountains, toilets• Artefacts relating to trade, commerce and manufacturing• Artefacts relating to medicine, health and hygiene• Jewellery – rings, bracelets, necklaces• Weapons and armour• Modifications to roads, paths and buildings• Human, animal, plant and food remains

Limitation of Sources

• There is clear evidence to explain some aspects of life in Pompeii and Herculaneum – various artefacts relating to the production of wine and olive oil provide reliable evidence of the processes used in those industries

• However there are considerable gaps in the evidence relating to other aspects of life – personal lives of individuals, intellectual life, the use of public spaces and other social activities

Limitation of Sources• Some gaps in the evidence are due to the nature of the ancient sources – we know

very little about women in the lower classes – they had few possessions, left no written record and were not written about by others

• Other gaps are due to the destruction of the eruption or the nature of the excavations – few wooden objects remain in Pompeii and few buildings have been uncovered at Herculaneum

Limitation of Sources• Still more gaps are due to looting and destruction of sites which have depleted the

sources available for drawing conclusions about some aspects of life• Many written sources have survived from the late republic and early empire, but

their focus is on the political life in Rome• Even those who wrote about the beautiful landscape and weather of Campania

provide little evidence about life in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Limitation of Sources• In the past, these gaps in the evidence have encouraged tendencies to speculate and

romanticize about the history of the towns and their people• Recent studies, based on more historical investigations, have involved more critical

discussion of the available sources

Reliability of Sources• Different types of written sources have survived from both cities• In order to assess the reliability of these sources, historians ask questions relating to

the context and purpose of the sources

• Pliny the Younger’s letters to Tacitus, for example, are assumed to be reliable eye-witness accounts of the eruption of Vesuvius

• However these letters were written from memory many years after the eruption and may have been partly motivated by Pliny’s desire to glorify the role of his uncle Pliny the Elder, who died while rescuing people from the eruption

Reliability of Sources

• Hundreds of examples of graffiti have survived, however special caution is needed when assessing the reliability of graffiti

• While the names of the individuals mentioned in graffiti may be accurate, the comments about them may not

• They may reveal more about the writer’s purpose or bias than the subject of the graffiti

Reliability of Sources

• Similarly, commemorative inscriptions can be useful in providing information about individuals, such as positions in local government or priesthoods they may have held, but typically they will highlight only positive aspects of the person being commemorated

Reliability of Sources

• The business and legal documents recorded on waxed tablets provide valuable information about such transactions

• The very purpose of the documents makes them reliable sources of evidence about such transactions

Reliability of Sources

• A comprehensive evaluation of the written source needs to consider the context in which it was produced, the purpose and or the perspective of the author, and how the source relates to the wider social or political context

• It is useful if other sources can corroborate the evidence provided in a particular source

Reliability of Sources