[Jewelry making - Article 00031] - [Orchid] [Tidbits] Skeleton's Rings

[Benjamin Mark]

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    Back to Pompeii and Herculaneum once again... a market center and a
    quiet resort... overshadowed by a dormant and not to be feared Mount
    Vesuvius. The opposite was true. The volcanic ashes once deposited so
    long ago had produced fertile soil which now grew luscious grapes and
    rich flavored wine. 

    Then... one day in August of 79 AD... the animals began behaving
    strangely. The birds no longer sang. All the cats left town. The dogs
    began barking without reason. I digress for a slight second. Did
    someone once say we were smarter than animals? Puh-leeze. 

    August 20th. An earth tremor shakes Pompeii... sounds like distant
    thunder fill the sky. And then all is quiet... till August 24... when
    suddenly... a mighty explosion... the ground shakes violently...
    broad sheets of fire are rising out of Vesuvius followed by a
    mushroom cloud of soil and ash and pumice and more. 

    Disaster! The citizens drop everything. The flee en-masse. Over the
    roads and building debris and fallen bodies... carrying what little
    they could gather in the scant moments they gleaned before the
    headlong rush to save their skins. 

    But some hesitate too long. They look for family. They look for
    prized possessions. They look for their jewels. Gems and gold are
    materials for barter any place in the world. A blanket of stifling
    ashes envelopes the stragglers. Hails of stone bombard those
    attempting to flee. Poisonous gases overcome those who have escaped
    so far. Mudslides bury forever the bodies of the fallen. 

    Later... much later... in the early 1700's... treasures begin to
    emerge from these long forgotten graves. I have a picture of one. A
    hapless victim of the catastrophe... caught and buried in that
    mudslide of so long ago... his/her skeletal fingers still adorned
    with gem laden rings... a last effort perhaps... to carry something
    of value that might be worth money for food when one had nothing
    else. 

    For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I
    direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
    scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
    Current Tidbits... and you'll see the skeletal remains ... rings
    intact... of one of Vesuvius' victims. 

And there ya have it.
That's it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark
http://www.tyler-adam.com
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