11-10-2002, 08:42 PM
The provenance of ancient finds, unless they are discovered and published by real archaeologists, is always doubtful. Prior to the 20th century most archaeology was just treasure-hunting and if you dug something up on someone's property, it was only prudent to claim you found it somewhere else. In some countries anything discovered beneath the ground, from buried treasure to metal ore, automatically belongs to the state or the crown. Add to that the fact that plenty of unauthorized excavation goes on right now and that, in Italy, it's not too well policed, and it's pretty much a crapshoot trying to figure out where a particular item came from.<br>
Pompeii was buried under ash and anyone with a shovel could dig there before it was closed off, but Herculaneum filled up with mud, which is much harder to dig. Plus, there's a modern city on top of it, so it's been far easier to control who gets into Herculaneum. I don't know of any evidence that there was a ludus there, but for that matter the "barracks" in Pompeii may not have been a ludus, either. Of course, there was nothing to prevent fight fans from collecting armor (Petronius even mentions a slave who has bought himself a full Thracian rig.) And free gladiators could have lived there and kept their armor at home, so gladiatorial finds are not out of the question. It was in Campania, after all, and Campania was to gladiators what Estramadura is to bullfighting. <p></p><i></i>
Pompeii was buried under ash and anyone with a shovel could dig there before it was closed off, but Herculaneum filled up with mud, which is much harder to dig. Plus, there's a modern city on top of it, so it's been far easier to control who gets into Herculaneum. I don't know of any evidence that there was a ludus there, but for that matter the "barracks" in Pompeii may not have been a ludus, either. Of course, there was nothing to prevent fight fans from collecting armor (Petronius even mentions a slave who has bought himself a full Thracian rig.) And free gladiators could have lived there and kept their armor at home, so gladiatorial finds are not out of the question. It was in Campania, after all, and Campania was to gladiators what Estramadura is to bullfighting. <p></p><i></i>
