The ruins of Pompeii - a series of eighteen photographic views - with an account of the destruction of the city, and a description of the most interesting remains (1867) (14796280203)

Identifier: ruinsofpompeiise00dyer (find matches)
Title: The ruins of Pompeii : a series of eighteen photographic views : with an account of the destruction of the city, and a description of the most interesting remains
Year: 1867 (1860s)
Authors: Dyer, Thomas Henry, 1804-1888
Subjects: Pompeii (Extinct city) Vesuvius (Italy) -- Eruption, 79
Publisher: London : Bell and Daldy
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
en excavated on the western side of the town. The wallsrun round the whole town, except on the western side, where the declivityis so steep, forming almost a cliiF, as to render needless any artificial defence.Some writers have supposed that in ancient times this side of the town waswashed by the sea, and that the tract of land, about a mile in extent, whichnow intervenes between the town and the shore, was formed by the depositsof the great eruption. But this, for many reasons, does not seem probable;and Overbeck, one of the most recent inquirers into this subject, informs us,in his work on Pompeii, that he has discovered traces of ancient buildingsand other remains on the gromid said to have been formerly covered bythe sea. The walls consist, in their lower parts, of large blocks of hewn, but notsquared, stone, fitted together without mortar; the joinmgs of them present-ing to the eye a vast variety of angles. The upjjer part of the Avail is of a WiM FOUNTAIN IN HOUSE OF THE BALCONY
Text Appearing After Image:
TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 25 more regular and improved construction, and therefore probably of a laterdate; the stones being more regularly cut, and approaching that style ofmasonry which the Greeks call isodomon; that is, constructed of stones of thesame form and size. Some parts, however, are even more recent than this,consisting of what is called opus incertum; or of small pieces of stone orlava, cemented together with mortar, and coated over with stucco, in imita-tion of the ancient parts. These portions are supposed to have been repairsto make good the damage inflicted by Sulla. The wall was in fact a double one, the two being bonded together bycross walls between them, and the interstices filled up with earth, so as toform a broad agger, or moimd, about twenty feet thick. Both the externaland the mternal wall were capped with battlements to defend the soldierswho guarded them, and were provided with embrasures through which theymight hurl theii- missiles. The external wall, which in