Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 5/27/09 Section: News

(Left to right) Phyllis Manner (staff), Dr. Ben Lowe (Principal Investigator), Dr. Betty Jo Mayeshe (Principal Investigator), Dr. Bob Curtis (Principal Investigator) and Linda Swanson (staff) analyze data inside Pompeii.

Few can think of a more exciting way to spend their summer, especially for a history professor. Dr. Ben Lowe of Western's history department has spent each summer (except one) since 2001 doing what many history buffs only dream of doing: investigating and surveying a well-preserved archaeological site.
The site Lowe and his wife, fellow professor Christy Lowe, examine is the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which is a ruined and partially buried ancient city near the present day city of Naples, Italy. Pompeii was completely buried by a volcanic eruption from neighboring Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The city, having been completely covered in 60 feet of ash and pumice, was not rediscovered until 1748.
Pompeii, which is listed by the World Heritage Organization as a World Heritage Site, is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with over 2.5 million visitors in 2007.
Lowe, who has been excavating different archaeological sites since 1991, started with the Pompeii Project in 2001. This project is the first to examine the production and consumption of food throughout the town.
"To achieve this, we are identifying, analyzing and documenting all extant physical remains and material objects associated with the storage, distribution, processing, preparation, serving and consumption of food and drink," said Lowe. "The immediate goal of this research is to compile a database recording all the extant structures and remains associated with food and drink."
Nearly no excavation of Pompeii is allowed, as tourists and pollution have made the site one of the 100 most endangered historical sites in the world; last fall the Italian government declared the site to be in a state of emergency.
"Many of the houses we entered had paintings or other pieces of artwork on the walls that were being destroyed by (the) pollution," said Philip Myers, a Western history student who accompanied Lowe in the summer of 2007. "The people in charge of the site seem to randomly close down houses due to pollution and too much human traffic, but we were able to get in some houses and buildings that were closed to the public."

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