Zimmermann, Martin Versunkene Welten

Ruinenstädte in der Antike von Troja bis Pompeji

Today, millions of visitors stroll through ancient ruined cities. Full of admiration, we study the decaying buildings and monuments and imagine what everyday life must have been like for the people who lived there. However, nostalgia and romantic melancholy in the face of the demise of ancient cultures are modern phenomena. Martin Zimmermann allows us to see important sites such as Troy, Mycenae, Nineveh and Pompeii with completely new eyes, namely those of the ancient people themselves. Cities are like people this was a common belief in ancient times. They are created only to die one day, while new ones flourish in other places. In contrast to today, people in ancient times took a much more pragmatic approach to the numerous destroyed cities that were already ubiquitous in the Mediterranean region at that time: ruins had nothing positive about them, they were either removed or simply ignored. Only in exceptional cases were they staged as places of remembrance and put to use. But why? Martin Zimmermann takes us on a fascinating journey through the ruins of antiquity. He sheds light on the various reasons for the decline of a city (wars, natural disasters, resettlements) and impressively shows how the people of that time repeatedly found their way out of even the most dramatic situations through their willingness to plan, their mobility and their talent for improvisation.