They Ate What?!

I wrote a post a month or so ago about the British Museum's app for its Pompeii exhibit. Many museums are beginning to incorporate technology into their exhibits, which is great! While using an app certainly isn't the same as seeing artifacts in person--or in their original location (don't get me started on this subject!)--you can download an app and see the objects in the exhibit without having to travel to the museum. This is really nice when the museum you're interested in visiting is halfway across the world and travel just isn't feasible. 

I was looking at my Pompeii app this morning and came across this cool artifact. Dormice, small European rodents, were delicacies in ancient Rome and are actually still considered as such in Slovenia and Croatia. Delicacies vary by culture. What's delicious to the French, like frog legs and escargot, may not appeal to you (but having tried both, I can assure you that they're delicious). Scottish people eat haggis, which is a type of pudding made from sheep organs. The Japanese eat raw fish in their sushi. In South American countries like Ecuador and Peru, guinea pigs are common fare. As the proud owner of several guinea pigs throughout my life, I can't say they're high on my list of things to try. I can cross haggis off too. 

I didn't realize that an ancient jar would cause me to think so much about delicacies and cultural food norms. What would be a delicacy in the U.S.? I've thought about this all day and can't come up with anything. I suppose it would vary by location within the country. In thousands of years, will archaeologists unearth bags of Cheetos, or even boxes of Twinkies, and think twenty-first century Americans ate these regularly? I suppose some do.

 This little artifact from Pompeii, which probably is nothing spectacular and was a common household item, has really caused this modern girl to think about what people eat and how willing we are to try new things. 

Flashback Friday: Freakout at Pompeii

Every Friday I’m going to write a post about a funny, interesting, or unusual experience I’ve had while traveling. This is a way for me to remember fun trips and the unique times I’ve had on my travels around the world. Today’s flashback comes from 2005 when I was in Europe on a school trip. We were visiting Pompeii in Italy, which is one of my favorite places. The history of the site is incredible. In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted, blanketing Pompeii and the neighboring city of Herculaneum with volcanic ash and debris, effectively preserving the Roman cities for over 1,500 years. The towns were frozen in time and you can now visit them and get a good sense of the layout of an ancient city in the Roman Empire. Visiting Pompeii is both awe-inspiring and tragic. I think the plaster casts of the citizens of Pompeii, especially their fear and grief-stricken faces, really make the disaster resonate with us today. 

We had to get up very early to take the daytrip from Rome to Pompeii. After an amazing tour, we found a restaurant to eat at which was located right outside of Pompeii’s gates. It was a gorgeous sunny day with no clouds in the sky, so we ate under a tree. Eating pasta, fresh bread, salad, and drinking wine just doesn’t get any better than in Italy, especially when surrounded by gorgeous views in a historically significant location. There was a light breeze that kept us from becoming too hot, but it also kept causing small seeds to fall from the tree we were sitting under. That got a little annoying when we started eating because the seeds were getting in our food. It took a few minutes to realize that the seeds were then walking off our plates. Turned out they weren't seeds at all, but ticks! We freaked out and started running toward the nearest bathroom to check ourselves. My sixteen-year-old self didn't know much about ticks but I knew they were bad and could cause Lyme disease. Now that I think about it, I still don't know anything about ticks, 10 years later. I do know they're bad though. Anyway, one girl, who shall remain nameless, actually took off her shirt and ran to the bathroom screaming in just her bra. The other tourists and proprietors of the restaurant sure got a good show that day, especially because none of them knew what had caused eight American teenage girls to start freaking out at Pompeii. Luckily none of the ticks had started feasting on us so we avoided contracting Lyme disease (maybe?) that day; however, I will always associate Pompeii with ticks. Just a few days ago I warned a colleague who's planning a trip to Pompeii that he better wear a hat, just in case.