Pompeii and Herculaneum Conservation

All of these issues have their impacts on the Ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, whether it being a slow but gradual degradation or a quick one. Another major factor involved in the destruction or degradation of these ancient sites is the eventual growth of vegetation, including weeds which overgrow the structures and lead to their destruction.

As roots of certain plants grow they increase the gaps of already existing cracks or even open new cracks creating considerable structural damage, algae and other mossy type plants over grow on mosaics and other rock surfaces damaging them permanently if not leaving a strong grassy stain ruining the architectural significance of most of those mosaics.Another problem faced with sites was the early excavation of objects and sites in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the early 19th century, were the sites were very poorly excavated usually damaging large proportions of the site, where usually the excavators or archaeologists would usually only excavate the more aesthetic objects rather than excavating a site that would be on top of the more expensive objects.Poor restoration can also account for some of the problems encountered with conservation. Poor restoration can be described as inexperienced workers have operated on sites with little or no knowledge of archeology, usually using methods to extract important artifacts ends with the destruction of more of the surrounding then actually excavating anything important.Structures that have been restored to last the modern day environment have been done very poorly and usually end up with the actual destruction of the structure or permanent damage of it. Drainage are also other problems involved with poor restoration as when the rains come pools are formed and vast quantities of the structures and frescos are ruined, usually creating their own salt pools which also damages the surrounding walls of buildings.

Also the mortar used to cover up many of the cracks has either been placed on very poorly, or the mortar itself was of bad quality so after a short period of time it has disappeared exposing the site to cracks and the growth of plants and other algae. Or sometimes mortar upon mortar has been placed on the walls placed on layers upon layers of other caking agents and covering cements causing a weight built up on the wall, eventually leading to the wall cracking even further, or chunks of the wall falling off due to the amount of mortar placed on the wall.Another raised issue with the restoration process is the amount that is actually spent on restoring Pompeii, millions of Euros is spent by the government to keep restoring these sites but a proportion of the money disappears either being spent on unnecessary resources and sloppy work or going into the pockets of corrupt officials or the Camorra Mafia that inhabit the Neapolitan prefecture, as the Mafia find jobs as restoration firms and the money that is sent to them is actually used for the underworld and crime society of Italy.The main issue that ancients site such as Pompeii and Herculaneum face nowadays is tourism. The increase in middle classes around the world, faster ways to travel, television and other media to broadcast such attractions and overall cheap amount of money it is to travel, has greatly increased the amounts of tourists that Pompeii and Herculaneum get, figures show that Pompeii alone attracts more than 2.

5 million tourists each year.Even though this is beneficial for the Italian economy, and for the heritage sites as they do make money out of tourists which can be later spent on the site itself for restoration and preservation processes, it does degenerate the site overtime, as Pompeii has been poorly maintained and equipped for the amounts of tourists that it gets every year, compared to the population it had thousands of years ago, that is the amount of tourists coming in every year is overwhelming the capacity that Pompeii used to be able to sustain, with a population one tenth the size of the amount of tourists visiting and resources that Pompeii has to look after the tourists, compared to its original population and sustainability involved.Also the amount of tourists that come in, means that they have to use the ancient paths as well, due to a lack of maintenance and well thought out planning of restoration, so areas of the cities that don’t have paved footpaths are eventually worn down by the constant pressures of friction of the people walking. Also the need for facilities to take care of the vast amount of tourists are also needed, this not only destroys the Ancient look of the site, but also destroys it environmentally as it contributes to pollution, degradation.

One of the most needed facilities is toilets but the area that Pompeii covers and the amount of tourists that come in means that plenty of toilets and bathroom facilities have to be made, but the problem arises on how they are going to be constructed and more importantly how, are they going to dig up some ground areas of Pompeii to add piping, risking leakage and maybe even damage, and plus the overall care and management of a build of garbage and how it is to be cleaned after it is left by tourists. Another negative with tourists performing random acts of vandalism such as breaking into ‘no zone’ areas of excavation, or actually breaking some of the preserved stonework’s as a form of enjoyment, or to graffiti parts of walls or murals.A bigger issue with vandalism is not breaking some areas of the preserved sides but stealing, stealing is one of the biggest issues that sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum face as tourists who want actual legitimate souvenirs and don’t want to pay for replicas break of parts of stones, columns and mosaics, these ancient artworks are being destroyed every day as prying tourists break of parts of these mosaics to have as souvenirs or to sell on the internet. Even though a lot of damage is caused by tourists not all of it is intentional, such as the erosion of footpaths from overuse, and the wearing of large backpacks with usually unintentionally scrape walls or corners, or even damage caused by leaning on unsupported structures which sometimes ends in the falling of walls and columns.