Exploring an ancient city
Western history professor Dr. Lowe spends his summers investigating the ancient city
Jeffrey Sawyer
Issue date: 5/27/09 Section: News
"The best bit of our work is our access to parts of the site that are not open to the public," said Lowe. "Vast areas of the site are not open and haven't been open for perhaps 50 years. We have seen rooms and paintings that are not recorded (to my knowledge) on any previous report."
"A lot of the work I was involved with was figuring out what the purpose was for each room in a house, some of which were really large," said Myers. "We learned that Pompeii was a pretty cosmopolitan place. In many sections of the city people were encouraged not to be isolated in homes like we are. They had hot food vendors on the corner, and few of the homes had their own cooking facilities. Very big social aspect and big city life---not discussed in history classes."
In past years, students of Western and students from other universities have participated in the project. The project is not affiliated with any university, and students have been involved from the beginning, with Western students participating for the past five years.
"Archaeology is a profession you will either love or hate," said Lowe. "If you don't like a lot of hard work out-of-doors, then it's not for you. It has enabled me to spend extended periods of time working in parts of the world of I would never have got to visit otherwise. I've dug in the Orkney Islands, England, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan. It would be extremely difficult to name a favorite as I have enjoyed them all a great deal. In 1992-1993, I worked on the excavation of a church at Tel Kerioth - the home town of Judas Iscariot. The joy of discovery is tremendous - at Tel Kerioth I got to excavate a tomb that hadn't been opened for 1,500 years."
"A lot of the work I was involved with was figuring out what the purpose was for each room in a house, some of which were really large," said Myers. "We learned that Pompeii was a pretty cosmopolitan place. In many sections of the city people were encouraged not to be isolated in homes like we are. They had hot food vendors on the corner, and few of the homes had their own cooking facilities. Very big social aspect and big city life---not discussed in history classes."
In past years, students of Western and students from other universities have participated in the project. The project is not affiliated with any university, and students have been involved from the beginning, with Western students participating for the past five years.
"Archaeology is a profession you will either love or hate," said Lowe. "If you don't like a lot of hard work out-of-doors, then it's not for you. It has enabled me to spend extended periods of time working in parts of the world of I would never have got to visit otherwise. I've dug in the Orkney Islands, England, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan. It would be extremely difficult to name a favorite as I have enjoyed them all a great deal. In 1992-1993, I worked on the excavation of a church at Tel Kerioth - the home town of Judas Iscariot. The joy of discovery is tremendous - at Tel Kerioth I got to excavate a tomb that hadn't been opened for 1,500 years."
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