Recounts how the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii buried the nearby city of Herculaneum, and recreates, through recent archaeological findings, the daily lives of those first century Romans

Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure

Arts & Photography

Deiss, Joseph Jay

History & Criticism

Harpercollins

A vivid portrayal of life in Pompeii's sister city, this book includes a detailed description of the ancient Villa dei Papiri, on which the present Getty Museum in Malibu is modeled.

Photography & Video

Harper&Row

(It was a sunny, cloudless August morning and the people of Herculaneum were going about their business. In various parts of the town, workmen plied their trades: cabinet-makers hammered and sawed, bakers baked their loaves, cloth-makers dyed and pressed their cloth. The streets were filled with people, and shopkeepers were busy selling snacks, both hot and cold, glassware, vegetables, pots, and jewellery. Inside most of the houses lunch was being prepared.Suddenly a violent, cracking sound filled the air. From a mountain top a vast mushroom cloud billowed into the sky. Within a short time the town of Hercules was lost to history-lost for hundreds of years.Like its sister-city Pompeii on the Bay of Naples, Herculaneum was buried by the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Unlike Pompeii, smothered in hot ashes, Herculaneum was submerged under a river of hot mud. The mud slowly cooled and hardened. Herculaneum was preserved as if in plastic - a treasure-trove for rediscovery many centuries later.In this book for young people Joseph Jay Deiss gives a fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of the rediscovery of this ancient city and reconstructs the daily life of the people who lived there)

The town of Hercules: A buried treasure-trove

Evans Bros.

Herculaneum: a city returns to the sun

Souvenir P

Reports on the actual excavation of the town, covered in volcanic matter since 79 A.D., and the subsequent findings of archaeologists

The Town of Hercules: A Buried Treasure Trove

Children's Books

History

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure.

In A.D. 79, Herculaneum, a small resort town on Italy's western coast, was buried, along with its larger neighbor Pompeii, under an avalanche of lava and ash by Mount Vesuvius. So deep were the towns buried that over the centuries even the memory of them faded. It was not until early in the eighteenth century that evidence of the towns was accidentally discovered. For the next fifty years, haphazard excavations and looting began to hint at the extent of what still lay buried. Only in the middle of the nineteenth century were systematic excavations begun, revealing the astonishing remains of the two Roman towns. Written especially for young adults, The Town of Hercules tells the tragic story of the eruption of Vesuvius and explains, through the example of the town itself, how life was lived in the Roman Empire during the first century A.D.

The Town of Hercules: A Buried Treasure Trove (Getty Trust Publications : J. Paul Getty Museum)

Ancient Civilizations

Oxford University Press

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW: The backdrop of Joseph Jay Deiss and Susanna Deiss’ delightful historical novel Justa may be familiar to most readers: the city of Herculaneum, doomed to be buried under molten lava at the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. Excavations are ongoing in a small fraction of what was once a sprawling, bustling city, and like similar works at Pompeii, those excavations have yielded tantalizing clues about the lives of the ordinary people who were trapped and killed there two thousand years ago. One such story involves a young woman named Justa whose mother was a freed slave of some wealth, which she bequeathed to her daughter. The widow of the man who freed Justa’s mother has designs on that inheritance, and the novel takes readers on a fascinating re-creation of the provincial Roman legal system as Justa strives to protect her legacy in court. She comes to the attention of idealistic young nobleman Marcus Balbus, which adds social conflict to legal woes, and Deiss &amp; Deiss manage it all very skillfully, balancing and counterbalancing plots and subplots while keeping one eye firmly fixed on the apocalypse the reader knows is coming. Justa is an appealingly designed and profusely illustrated book, but its main attractions are the decidedly old-fashioned kind: solid plot, attractive young lovers, a hissable villain, and an inevitable fate that just might be survivable. Highly recommended. About reviewer Steve Donoghue: In addition to writing reviews for the Historical Novel Society, Steve Donoghue is Managing Editor of the literary journal "Open Letters Monthly," and he writes for the "National", the "Washington Post," the "Wall Street Journal," "Kirkus," and the "Boston Globe."

Justa

Literature & Fiction

Deiss, Susanna

Genre Fiction

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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Books by Deiss, Joseph Jay