Could be worse, we could be Italian Archaeology?

[BAJR]

After the collapse at the House of the Gladiators last month, yet another part of the world-famous Roman city of Pompeii in southern Italy has fallen down, archaeological officials at the site admitted on Tuesday.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]785[/ATTACH]

Following days of heavy rain a twelve metre section of a wall associated with the House of the Moralist gave way and collapsed after the wooden revetted terraces behind it slumped.


Other things of Berlusconis mind? Wall painting from Pompeii (Photo: F. Tronchin: Flickr)


The building is only 30 metres from the 2,000-year-old House of the Gladiators, whose collapse on 6 November shocked the world and drew calls for Italy’s culture minister Sandro Bondi to resign and is a major source of embarrassment to Berlusconi’s goverment. Bondi has however, remained in his post and denies accusations that he has neglected the world-heritage site, saying he is not to blame.

However he commented that “Between September 2003 and February 2010 there have been 16 collapses at Pompeii — so you see they don’t just happen when the center-right is in government.”

..............read on>>>

[Misty]

But if Pompeii had been in Britain it would have been looted by Antiquarians in the 17th and 18th centuries, had a railway line cutting through the middle of it in the 19th century and bulldozed for a shopping centre in the 1950's and 1960's.

[deadlylampshade]

Good point...:face-approve:

[gwyl]

In yesterday's Guardian (print) the wall was said to be not very important :face-approve:
but anyway:

To Italy's business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, the collapse of the House of the Gladiators was proof that responsibility for Pompeii should be removed from the state and given to private sponsors – perhaps beverage or car companies, who could decorate Pompeii with their logos.

(Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov...ll-pompeii)

Solution to everything really...

[Sith]

Hmm, I worked in Pompeii a few times in the past but I never touched that bit, honest.

Seriously, though.. I'm not really surprised because there are acres of the site that is not open to the public largely because it's not particularly interesting (well not unlerss you come from a country where most Roman archaeology is little more than the footings), and consequently not very well looked after. Should I go again, I'll think twice about poking around in the 'empty quarters'.