The day I dropped a perfectly intact Roman oil lamp

I was working at a dig site in Pompeii, carefully brushing dirt off this little terracotta lamp. My hands were sweaty from the heat and I fumbled it. It hit the edge of the trench and shattered into like five pieces. My heart just sank. I had to spend the next three hours with the site supervisor, painstakingly gluing it back together. Anyone else ever have a find go from perfect to project in a split second?

3 comments

3 Comments

blaked7928d ago

Honestly my stomach dropped just reading that. You were holding a Roman lamp from Pompeii itself, that's insane. Tbh I can't even imagine the feeling when it hit the trench.

dylanbell27d ago

Yeah that stuff really gets to you. Like milab75 said, it's the human connection that hits hardest. I saw a kid's leather shoe from the same period once and it messed me up for days.

milab7528d ago

Forget the money value, think about the last person who lit it. Some poor soul in Pompeii put oil in it, maybe to read or cook dinner, right before everything ended. That's the part that gets me.