2,000-Year-Old Remains of Horse Killed by Pompeii Volcano Found in Tomb Raider Tunnel

Ancient Origins

Donkeys, pigs, and dogs have all been found amongst the ruins of Pompeii, but the remains of a carbonized horse are the first example archaeologists have come across of that animal. While the discovery is great, the way it was found is unsettling. T

he Local.it reports the horse was found in a stable, complete with a trough, beside a large Roman villa. Unfortunately, archaeologists were not the first to make the discovery – tomb raiders are responsible for unearthing the horse. Nonetheless, Massimo Osanna, the director of the Pompeii site, calls the horse an "extraordinary" find.

Authorities found the looters had dug a 60 meter (196.85 ft.) long network of tunnels under the villa, to search for frescoes and other precious artifacts. Laser scanners show the tunnels measure just 60 cm (23.62 inches) wide, according to Independent.ie. Steps have been taken to find the looters and archaeologists have begun excavating the area properly to try to avoid further destruction.

Traces of an iron and bronze harness were located beside the horse’s head, which archaeologists believe suggests the animal was probably a parade horse that was specially bred to fulfill that action and very expensive. The Telegraph mentions there is also the possibility that the animal was a prized racing horse.

The remains of the horse were uncovered by looters. (Antonio Ferrara and Riccardo Siano )

 The recently discovered horse measures 150 centimeters (59.06 inches) tall at the withers, somewhat short if compared to a modern horse, but experts say it would have been a rather large adult horse in ancient Pompeii. It was carbonized following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and no skeleton or flesh remains on its body. However, the form has been preserved through a technique which experts have been using to preserve casts of Pompeii’s human victims . The procedure involves injecting the empty body cavity with liquid plaster.

The Local.it says this is the first time archaeologists have found the complete outline of a horse at Pompeii. Experts were able to distinguish it as a horse, as opposed to a donkey, because of the left ear imprint which marks the ground under the animal’s head.

The imprint of the horse's left ear. ( Parco Archeologico di Pompei )

 A tomb dating to a later period was also found at the villa. It contained a man who died when he was 40-55 years old and Osanna says , "It shows that even after the eruption, people continued to live and to farm in Pompeii, on top of the layer of ash which destroyed the city." Amphora shards, fragments of kitchen utensils, and part of a wooden bed were also found during excavations.

This is the second major discovery to be reported from Pompeii in the last few weeks. On April 25, Osanna announced that archaeologists had found the skeleton of a child who died during Vesuvius’ eruption . The seven or eight-year-old sought shelter from the volcanic ash, gas, and pumice by crouching inside a public thermal bath.

The child’s skeleton was found in a crouching position in the bath complex of the town. ( Parco Archeologico de Pompeii )

 Top Image: The remains of an ancient Roman horse have been found in Pompeii. Source: Parco Archeologico di Pompei

 By Alicia McDermott

Skeleton Found in Pompeii Belonged to Child Seeking Shelter from Deadly Volcanic Eruption

Ancient Origins

Among the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, archaeological excavations have revealed the skeleton of a child who died in a volcanic eruption. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and destroyed the city of Pompeii, a busy port, along with neighbouring Herculaneum. For many centuries the city lay under the earth, forgotten, near the bustling city of Naples. However, since the eighteenth century it has been extensively excavated and is now a massive archaeological site. Skeletons have been preserved in the ash and debris of Pompeii, and many have been recovered by archaeologists over the years. Pompeii's director Massimo Osanna announced the discovery of the child’s skeleton on the 25th of April.

The child skeleton was found in crouching position in the bath complex of the town. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

A Child in Hiding
The child is estimated to have been seven or eight years old and was discovered in a crouching position. The skeleton was found in the public thermal bath complex, which was one of the most important public buildings in Pompeii. It is speculated that the child died here while seeking shelter from the volcanic ash, gas, and pumice. The skeleton is relatively intact, and this would suggest that the child was killed by the flow of hot ash and gas that descended upon Pompeii. Those who did not flee the volcanic ash cloud would have perished.

It is estimated that some 10% of Pompeii’s population died, approximately 2000 men, women and children. The majority of them, like the child whose skeleton has been discovered, died either as a result of the pyroclastic flows or they were suffocated by poisonous ash. A pyroclastic flow is a current of hot gas and volcanic matter that is emitted by an erupting volcano and that moves at a great speed. They are often impossible to escape by foot.

The remans of the child were found in one of the baths of the bath complex. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

Analysis of the Scene
It appears that the pyroclastic flow that swept down from Vesuvius and descended upon Pompeii after the eruption is what has preserved the remains of the child. It is theorized that the flow of hot gas and ash flooded through the windows and doors into the bath complex. The ash and gas flow buried the child, and this solidified over the body when rain fell, encasing the young victim. The skeleton had been sealed in the bath by the pyroclastic flow, according to the American publication Archaeology. This allowed the skeleton to remain undisturbed for millennia.

Maintenance Work Prompted the Find
The find was made during a sweep of the bath complex by a team of archaeologists using the latest scanning equipment, a videoscope. The archaeologists surveyed the area with the equipment as efforts were being made to prevent the ruined walls of the thermal bath from falling. The new technology enabled the archaeological team to investigate areas of the sprawling site that had not been investigated in many decades. With the aid of the videoscope they were able to detect something unusual beneath the surface and this persuaded them to dig in the baths. The thermal baths of the ruined city had, it was believed, already been excavated and the discovery of the skeleton was a surprise to the archaeologists. According to Phys.org, there is speculation that the skeleton had been previously found in the nineteenth century. This was based on the fact that the leg bones appeared to have been placed next to the body, presumably by a person. However, for some reason they had not been removed or even recorded.

Pompeii Director, Massimo Osanna and a colleague inspect the find. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

A Rare Find for Pompeii
The skeleton was unearthed in February, but the discovery was not publicized at the time, which is standard practice with such finds. It is the first complete skeleton uncovered in two decades and the first child’s skeleton to be uncovered in fifty years. The remains of the child have been removed to a laboratory in Naples for further investigation. The skeleton will undergo a series of extensive tests by an interdisciplinary team of experts. It is hoped that the tests will allow the sex of the child to be established by analysis of its DNA. There will also be tests that seek to determine the age of the child and its general health. The fact that this is the first child to be discovered in fifty years means that experts can now learn more about the lives of the children of Pompeii. The team examining the remains are using the latest technology to discover as much as possible about the skeleton and also what it can tell about life in Pompeii before its fiery destruction.

 Top image: The child skeleton recently discovered at Pompeii. Source: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

By Ed Whelan

Researchers Look to Crowdfunding to Identify the Skull of Pompeii Hero Pliny the Elder

Ancient Origins

Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, was an influential administrator, officer, and author in ancient Rome. His life ended suddenly with the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. He had used his fleet of ships to rescue local citizens and carry them from Pompeii to safety. However, stories say Pliny the Elder himself did not make it out of the town alive. Pliny the Younger wrote on the horrifying eruption and asserted that his uncle was leading a group of survivors to safety when he was overtaken by a cloud of poisonous gas – he died on the beach during that rescue attempt.

Pliny the Younger told the Roman senator and historian Tacitus that he had witnessed the eruption from a distance.

Scene of destruction in the film “Pompeii 3d” (2014). (La Stampa/CC BY NC ND)

Fast forward to 1900, when Italian engineer Gennaro Matrone was excavating Pompeii and discovered the remains of 70+ people. One of the figures was found far from the others; it was graced in bracelets and rings and was wearing a large gold necklace. According to IBTImes UK, Matrone had a hunch that this was the figure of Pliny the Elder – his beliefs have never been confirmed.

Excavations of Pompeii by Gennaro Matrone in 1900. (La Stampa/CC BY NC ND)

Now, Haaretz reports that the skull of this figure from the beach is held in the collection of the Museum of the History of the Art of Medicine in Rome. It has been largely forgotten until historian Flavio Russo and Isolina Marota, an anthropologist at the University of Camerino who is best known for working on the remains of Ötzi the Iceman, decided that it could be worthwhile to check if the skull really belonged to Pliny the Elder.

 Marota told La Stampa “Considering the importance of the findings, our university has the utmost readiness to start a research project on it, perhaps in collaboration with specialized scholars and archaeologists and with the experts responsible for managing the Pompeii site.”

Some of the victims of Pompeii were sitting, some lying when the superhot gas cloud enveloped them. (Bigstock photo)

According to Haaretz, the team is trying to gain the necessary funds to complete the project through crowdfunding (they write that the “Italian cultural and scientific institutions are mired in budget troubles”). The researchers plan to use stable isotope analysis of the skull’s teeth, which was also used in the identification of Ötzi’s origins, and other methods to identify the origins of the skull. As Marota explained, “When we drink water or eat something, whether it's plants or animals, the minerals from the soil enter our body, and the soil has a different composition in every place.” Matching the isotopes with the tooth enamel to those found in soil samples can help the researchers pinpoint the skull’s homeland.

Researchers want to know for certain if this is the skull of Pliny the Elder. (Flavio Russo)

A second method Marota says the team can use is to compare the shape of the head and jaw to busts of Pliny the Elder from his time period.

A previous Ancient Origins article tells us that Pliny the Elder was born in Como, Italy in 23 or 24 AD into a powerful and elite equestrian family (akin to knights). He traveled to Rome in 35 AD and learned the art of rhetoric and public speaking. Throughout the rest of his life (while on the road, and in between careers) Pliny worked tirelessly on a variety of written works.

Pliny the Elder. (Public Domain)

 Pliny served the Roman army as a military officer of the forces, and later as leader of the cavalry, from 45 to 47 AD. He became acquainted with and wrote about several Roman emperors and discussed Germanic warfare, but his most famous work was the Naturalis Historia. Written around 77 AD, this is a thirty-seven chapter book written in ten volumes, which writer Riley Winters explains:

“utilized all of the experience Pliny went through during his travels and the knowledge of his youth to create a compilation of Roman life. The book dictated astronomy, geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, medicine, magic, and mineralogy, as well as a cornucopia of other topics. The information within has proven incredibly illuminating to both modern day historians, and to the Romans during their time.”

The oldest illustrated version (1513) of the Historia Naturalis of Plinius maior (right). Also showing a 1570 edition of the famous Greek speeches, the Logoi by Demosthenes. (CC BY SA 3.0)

 Top Image: Scene of destruction in the film “Pompeii 3d” (2014). (La Stampa/CC BY NC ND) Insert: Remains of a skull attributed to Pliny the Elder from the Museo di Storia dell'Arte Sanitaria in Rome. (Flavio Russo)

By Alicia McDermott

Two Pregnant Women and their Fetuses Latest Victims of Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

Ancient Origins

fter being buried in ash for more than 1,900 years, new victims of the devastating eruption in the Pompeii area have been discovered, including two pregnant women and their newborn or late-term fetuses. Experts suggest that the new discovery could be a “game-changer” for Roman bioarcheology.  
The Catastrophic Eruption
Mount Vesuvius was responsible for the destruction of the city of Pompeii on August 24, 79 AD and is without a doubt the most famous volcanic eruption in history, even though not the deadliest one, as many people falsely tend to believe. Still, scientists have estimated that Mt. Vesuvius released thermal energy 100,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. For the record, before the eruption of Vesuvius, there was no word for volcano. They had to come up with one right after the catastrophic eruption. The word is derived from “Vulcan," the Roman God of Fire.

 New Skeletons are Discovered
As Fox News reports, the estimates as to how many people were killed in Pompeii vary greatly, and the number has been a heated topic of debate among historians for decades. Most historians, however, will agree that at least a thousand people were buried under dozens of feet of lava in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It might sound macabre, but the tons of ash and hot gas that killed so many of Pompeii’s citizens, are also the reason why their bodies have been so greatly preserved.

Villa Oplontis as it is today (CC BY SA 2.0)

Surprisingly, the human remains of four more victims, two pregnant women and their newborn or late-term fetuses as Fox News reports, have been found among an estimated fifty others in a building in the nearby villa of Oplontis. Despite more than half of these fifty skeletons being unearthed during the mid-1980s and the others being partly uncovered in 1991, the human remains of the women and their fetuses were fully excavated only a few weeks ago. “This summer, I headed a small team that excavated the remaining skeletons and collected osteological data on all of the people who were trapped at Oplontis by the volcano,” Kristina Kilgrove, a bioarcheologist at the University of West Florida, wrote in Forbes.

Photomodel of skeletons in situ, Room 10, Oplontis B (Torre Annunziata, Italy). (Credit: N.Terrenato and M. Naglak, University of Michigan)

Newly Discovered Skeletons Could be “Game-Changer”
After sitting beneath a thick layer of ash for more than 1,500 years, Pompeii was accidentally discovered in 1599 when the workers who were digging a water channel unearthed frescoes and an inscription containing the name of the city. The most decorated Italian architect of the time, Domenico Fontana, visited the site to examine the finds and unearthed a few more frescoes. Unfortunately, he was also a huge prude. He re-covered them because of the excessive sexual content of the paintings. In this way, the city became buried again (thanks to censorship) for nearly another 150 years before the king of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, ordered the proper excavation of the site during the late 1740s.

Since then, Pompeii became the center of interest for thousands of archaeologists, historians and scientists. An excited Kilgrove, however, believes that the discovery of the four new “victims” could change Roman history and add even more (cultural) prestige to Pompeii, “These newly analyzed skeletons from Oplontis are a game-changer in Roman bioarcheology, since they represent people who all died catastrophically, rather than after an illness. This means that these skeletons give archaeologists a better glimpse into what life was like for people in their prime than do cemetery burials,” she wrote in Forbes.

She goes on to explain why the skeletons of the women and their fetuses could be particularly intriguing, “While their biological relationship is not in question, their disease status and diet certainly are. If the mother suffered from an intestinal parasite or an infectious disease, did that affect the fetus as well? How will the carbon and nitrogen isotopes reflect the mother's diet of food and the fetus's ‘diet’ of maternal nutrition and energy stores? For our further research, we hope to answer questions such as these that cannot be solved through study of history and archaeology alone,” she writes in Forbes.

Vesuvius erupting at Night, (William Marlow circa 1768) (Public Domain)

Only One Firsthand Account Exists
Ultimately, despite being the most famous volcanic eruption throughout the centuries, there’s only one recorded account saved that describes the catastrophic aftermath of the Mount Vesuvius eruption and it comes from Pliny the Younger. In a letter to Tacitus, Pliny describes what he experienced during the second day of the disaster:

“A dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the Earth like a flood. 'Let us leave the road while we can still see,' I said, 'or we shall be knocked down and trampled underfoot in the dark by the crowd behind.' We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room. You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness forevermore.”

Top image: Skeletons in the' Boat Houses', Herculaneum (Public Domain)

 By Theodoros Karasavvas

Poisonings Went Hand in Hand with the Drinking Water in Ancient Pompeii

Ancient Origins

The ancient Romans were famous for their advanced water supply. But the drinking water in the pipelines was probably poisoned on a scale that may have led to daily problems with vomiting, diarrhea, and liver and kidney damage. This is the finding of analyses of water pipe from Pompeii.

"The concentrations were high and were definitely problematic for the ancient Romans. Their drinking water must have been decidedly hazardous to health." This is what a chemist from University of Southern Denmark reveals: Kaare Lund Rasmussen, a specialist in archaeological chemistry. He analyzed a piece of water pipe from Pompeii, and the result surprised both him and his fellow scientists. The pipes contained high levels of the toxic chemical element, antimony.

 The result has been published in the journal Toxicology Letters.

 Romans Poisoned Themselves
For many years, archaeologists have believed that the Romans' water pipes were problematic when it came to public health. After all, they were made of lead: a heavy metal that accumulates in the body and eventually shows up as damage to the nervous system and organs. Lead is also very harmful to children. So there has been a long-lived thesis that the Romans poisoned themselves to a point of ruin through their drinking water.

Lead water pipe, Roman, 20-47 CE with owner’s name cast into the pipe. The most notable lady Valeria Messalina’ (third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius) (CC BY 4.0)

 "However, this thesis is not always tenable. A lead pipe gets calcified rather quickly, thereby preventing the lead from getting into the drinking water. In other words, there were only short periods when the drinking water was poisoned by lead: for example, when the pipes were laid or when they were repaired: assuming, of course, that there was lime in the water, which there usually was," says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

Ancient roman lead pipes in Ostia Antica (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Advanced Equipment at SDU
Unlike lead, antimony is acutely toxic. In other words, you react quickly after drinking poisoned water. The element is particularly irritating to the bowels, and the reactions are excessive vomiting and diarrhea that can lead to dehydration. In severe cases, it can also affect the liver and kidneys and, in the worst-case scenario, can cause cardiac arrest.

 This new knowledge of alarmingly high concentrations of antimony comes from a piece of water pipe found in Pompeii. -

 Or, more precisely, a small metal fragment of 40 mg, which I obtained from my French colleague, Professor Philippe Charlier of the Max Fourestier Hospital, who asked if I would attempt to analyse it. The fact is that we have some particularly advanced equipment at SDU, which enables us to detect chemical elements in a sample and, ever more importantly, to measure where they occur in large concentrations.

 Volcano Made it Even Worse
 Kaare Lund Rasmussen underlines that he only analyzed this one little fragment of water pipe from Pompeii. It will take several analyses before we can get a more precise picture of the extent, to which Roman public health was affected.

But there is no question that the drinking water in Pompeii contained alarming concentrations of antimony, and that the concentration was even higher than in other parts of the Roman Empire, because Pompeii was located in the vicinity of the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. Antimony also occurs naturally in groundwater near volcanoes.

The lead pipe sample is being analyzed at University of Southern Denmark. Credit: SDU

This is What the Researchers Did
The measurements were conducted on a Bruker 820 Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer.

The sample was dissolved in concentrated nitric acid. 2 ml of the dissolved sample was transferred to a loop and injected as an aerosol in a stream of argon gas which was heated to 6000 degrees C by the plasma.

All the elements in the sample were ionized and transferred as an ion beam into the mass spectrometer. By comparing the measurements against measurements on a known standard the concentration of each element is determined.

Top Image: An original Roman lead waterpipe in Bath, England. Photo: Andrew Dunn/CC BY SA 2.0).

 University of Southern Denmark. "Poisonings went hand in hand with the drinking water in ancient Pompeii." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 August 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170817110902.htm

The article ‘Poisonings went hand in hand with the drinking water in ancient Pompeii’ was originally published on Science Daily and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

Little Pompeii’ Unearthed in France is Most Exceptional Roman Site Found in Half a Century

Ancient Origins

In an extensive excavation of a complete Roman neighborhood found near the outskirts of the city of Vienne in the south-east of France, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of affluent houses and public buildings, including extravagant and beautiful mosaics. The huge site, which dates back to the 1st century AD, is exceptionally well preserved and has been described by Benjamin Clement, the lead archaeologist at the dig as, ‘undoubtedly the most exceptional excavation of a Roman site in 40 or 50 years’ reports The Guardian.

 The Pompeii Comparison
Vienne is situated on the Rhône River near Lyon, and is already well-known for its Roman history due to a Roman theater and temple in the city. The current excavations in the Sainte-Colombe area began in April and are opening up a huge Roman landscape of 7000 square meters (75,000 sq ft). The site is remarkable not only due to its size but both the diversity of finds and the excellent condition they have been found in. Despite the perhaps merciful lack of petrified corpses, there are similarities to the equally well preserved site in Pompeii, as the neighborhood was abandoned due to fires after 300 years of habitation. Although devastating to the citizens there, the fires will have aided its preservation.

One of the French archaeological team cleaning household artifacts at the site at Sainte-Colombe in Vienne, France (Credit: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP)

As Mr Clement commented according to the Telegraph, “It was the succession of fires that ended up helping to preserve the buildings and artifacts, although of course they drove the inhabitants out.” Although the devastation was not on the same scale or so rapid at that of Pompeii, the situation and site have similarities in that people deserted the place quickly leaving some of their belongings which were then preserved by ash from the fires. This is providing rich pickings for the archaeologists and hence justifying the moniker Clement attributes to the site of ‘a real little Pompeii in Vienne.’

Huge Area of Well Preserved Roman History
After around a century of contention with the Gallic inhabitants, the ancient city came under full rule of the Roman empire in about 47 BC under Julius Caesar and began to prosper. This neighborhood was diverse but has evidence of a great deal of wealth and included luxury homes, public buildings and communal spaces. One building believed to be the residence of a merchant has been dubbed by the team as ‘The House of Bacchanalia’ due to its floor mosaic scene of maenads (female followers of Bacchus, Roman god of wine) and satyrs. This building had marble tiling, its own water supply system and large gardens and despite being collapsed by the fire, the team believes it will be able to completely restore it, reports the Telegraph.

The site is extensive and covers a whole neighborhood. Image: JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP

 Another interesting mosaic that is undergoing restoration in another abode is of Thalia, the patron of comedy, with a bare derrière and being abducted by Pan the god of the satyrs. According to the Guardian report, the team plans to painstakingly remove the mosaics and reassemble them so that they will be available for everyone to enjoy at Vienne’s museum of Gallo-Roman civilization by 2019.

 As well as mosaics and household items, a large building with a fountain decorated by a statue of Hercules was uncovered which had been constructed on the site of a former market.

The Vienne of Rome

The Temple of Auguste and Livie lit up at night, Vienne, France (CC BY 3.0)

The position Vienne held on the mighty Rhône river was part of the major transport route that connected Lyon, the soon to be capital of Gaul to the north, with Gallia Narbonensis, a Roman settlement in the south. The colonized city made all its inhabitants citizens of Rome and it prospered under successive Caesars, evidence of which exists until this day. Perhaps the most impressive of this evidence is the Temple of Auguste and Livie, which is remarkably well preserved having later been used as a church. There also still exists a theater, the ‘Garden of Cybele’ (Cybele being known by the Romans as Magna Mater or Great Mother) and a pyramid shaped monument that was part of the Roman ‘circus’ or hippodrome

‘Pyramide de Vienne’ Roman era monument (CC BY 3.0)

The position of Vienne in the empire was not accepted by all and there were calls for its destruction by the people of nearby rival town, Lyon. The city lived on despite these troubles, however it suffered due to competing claim of Lyon to be the leading city in the area and by the 3rd century it had declined drastically as Lyon took the lead role in the region. A new city wall was built that was less than a third of the length of the existing 7-kilometer (4.35 miles) wall.

Modern Revelations
Being on the edges of modern Vienne and dated in the first three centuries AD, the current excavation is revealing further the story of a period when the city was at its ancient height of prosperity. It will add a depth of knowledge concerning the daily life and society at the time when the famous monuments - which have been known an admired in the city for two millennia - were erected.

The archaeological site of the Garden of Cybele, Vienne (CC BY SA 3.0)

The excavation of the Sainte-Colombe site will be ongoing until December.

Top image: A well-preserved mosaic on the archaeological site of Sainte-Colombe, Vienne. (Image: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP)

By Gary Manners

Pompeii: A Snapshot of Ancient Roman Life

BY GRAHAM LAND

Made From History

In August of 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted, covering the Roman city of Pompeii in 4 – 6 metres of pumice and ash. The nearby town of Herculaneum met a similar fate.

 Of the 11,000-strong population at the time, it is estimated that only around 2,000 survived the first eruption, while most of the rest perished in the second, which was even more powerful. The preservation of the site was so extensive because rain mixed with the fallen ash and formed a sort of epoxy mud, which then hardened.

 What was a large-scale natural disaster for the ancient residents of Pompeii turned out to be a miracle in archaeological terms, due to the incredible conservation of the city.

Ash moulds preserved human forms at the time of death. Credit: Sören Bleikertz (Wikimedia Commons)

 Written Records of Pompeii

You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognise them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.
—Pliny the Younger

Before the rediscovery of the site in 1599, the city and its destruction were known only through written records. Both Pliny the Elder and his nephew Pliny the Younger wrote about the eruption of Vesuvius and the death of Pompeii. Pliny the Elder described seeing a large cloud from across the bay, and as a commander in the Roman Navy, embarked on a nautical exploration of the area. He ultimately died, probably from inhaling sulphuric gases and ash.

 Pliny the Younger’s letters to the historian Tacitus relate the first and second eruptions as well as the death of his uncle. He describes residents struggling to escape the waves of ash and how the rains later mixed with the fallen ash.

 An Incredible Window into Ancient Roman Culture

A house in Pompeii. Credit: Sean Hayford O’Leary (Wikimedia Commons)

 Though much about Ancient Roman culture and society was recorded in art and the written word, these media are purposeful, thought-out ways of transmitting information. Contrastingly, the disaster at Pompeii and Herculaneum provides a spontaneous and accurate 3-dimensional snapshot of ordinary life in a Roman city.

 Thanks to the temperamental geological nature of Vesuvius, ornate paintings and gladiator graffiti alike have been preserved for two millennia. The city’s taverns, brothels, villas and theatres were captured in time. Bread was even sealed in bakery ovens. There is simply no archaeological parallel to Pompeii as nothing comparable has survived in such a way or for such a long time, which so accurately preserves the lives of ordinary ancient people.

 Most, if not all, the buildings and artefacts of Pompeii would have been lucky to last 100 years if not for the eruption. Instead they have survived for nearly 2,000.

 What Survived in Pompeii?
Examples of preservation at Pompeii include such diverse treasures as the Temple of Isis and a complementary wall painting depicting how the Egyptian goddess was worshiped there; a large collection of glassware; animal-powered rotary mills; practically intact houses; a remarkably well-conserved forum baths and even carbonised chicken eggs.

A fresco shows a young woman holding a stylus and wooden tablets

 Paintings range from a series of erotic frescos to a fine depiction of a young woman writing on wooden tablets with a stylus, a banquet scene and a baker selling bread. A somewhat more crude painting, though just as valuable in terms of history and archaeology, is from a city tavern and shows men engaging in gameplay.

 A Remnant of the Ancient Past Faces an Uncertain Future
While the ancient site is still being excavated, it is more vulnerable to damage than it was all those years buried under ash. UNESCO has expressed concerns that the Pompeii site has suffered from vandalism and a general decline due to poor upkeep and a lack of protection from the elements.

 Though most of the frescos have been rehoused in museums, the architecture of the city remains exposed and requires safeguarding as it is a treasure not just of Italy, but of the world.

Pompeiian gladiator graffiti

Mysterious gravestones near Pompeii reflect political upheaval in Ancient Rome

IB Times

By Léa Surugue

On the outskirts of Pompeii, hundreds of mysterious stelae (gravestones), shaped in a very unusual way, can be found. Known as columelle (from the Latin meaning 'small column'), they are rectangular standing stones topped with disks almost resembling human busts – and they have long puzzled archaeologists.

 The city of Pompeii, best known for the massive volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD which buried it under ash, was incorporated into the Roman state in the early 1st century BCE, along with other cities of southern Campania (south of the Bay of Naples). This happened after a bitter Social War fought between Rome and its former allies in Italy, from 91 to 88 BCE.

 Because columelle are so different to the kind of stelae that have been documented in Rome from the same period, archaeologists have previously argued that these gravestones must pre-date Roman times.

 They have described them as objects that were unique to the funerary culture and belief system of Pompeii and its neighbours, saying that they were first created when these cities were independent from Rome.

 However, analyses have revealed that the earliest known columelle were erected no earlier than the mid-1st century BCE, after Pompeii had already been conquered by Rome.

This paradox is intriguing to archaeologists, who have attempted to learn more about the origins and purpose of columelle, and why they emerged in Roman times. A lot of research has been done to find out how they were used, but little has been done to study them in the broader Roman context.

 In a study now published by the American Journal of Archaeology, Allison Emmerson, from the Faculty of Classical Studies at Tulane University (USA), puts forward new hypotheses to solve the puzzle of what the columelle meant to the people of Southern Campania and why they appear older than they really are.

 Unique cultural identity

 In the pre-Roman period, the cities south of the Bay of Naples are thought to have been culturally distinct from the rest of Italy.

 The aftermath of the Social War was characterised by great social and political upheaval. The entire Italian peninsula, including those cities, were for the first time all united under Rome, putting this unique culture in peril.

 Emmerson argues that columelle were not pre-Roman objects which were then carried into the Roman era – as many other scholars had previously said. Instead, she writes that columelle began appearing around Pompeii and other southern cities early after the unification of the peninsula with a specific purpose

 "The unification of the cities under Rome brought major shifts in the way Italians thought about themselves and each other. One reaction to the change was that Italian cities and regions — now politically and culturally united for the first time — began to emphasise their individual histories," Emmerson told IBTimes UK.

 Columelle often marked one burial within a larger group tomb - usually the tomb of a single family, including their slaves. Their shape, so similar to that of a human bust, is much simpler than that of other gravestones from the same period, and as such, columelle appear to date back to more ancient times.

Strange gravestones were recovered near Pompeii. They are known as columelle.Peter Stewart/Flickr Creative commons

But Emmerson's research suggests that columelle were not as old as they might seem. Since none dating back to pre-Roman times have been discovered, there seems to be little evidence to say they formed part of a funerary culture unique to Pompeii and neighbouring cities before the Social War.

 Rather, these gravestones erected after the war, seem to be a sort of political statement to show the rest of the Peninsula that these cities were unique, despite having been integrated into the Roman state. "

As often happens in times when humans look back to the 'good old days' that process brought with it some exaggeration, reimagining, and even invention of the past. Basically, they wanted to emphasize aspects of their culture that made them distinct. The evidence suggests that columelle, like other objects and traditions that appeared at the same time, were meant to seem old, but were actually new," Emmerson added.

 According to her, there might have been even more reason to come up with objects such as columelle to create the image of an age old, unified region. The largest and most important city, Nuceria of southern Campania, had indeed sided with Rome in the Social War, unlike all the others. "So the columelle almost try to delete that recent history, glossing over what must have been bitter divisions between the people of the region," Emmerson said.

Archaeologists Discover Paintings of Ancient Egypt in a 2,000-Year-Old Villa in Pompeii

Ancient Origins

A team of archaeologists have discovered impressive paintings of Ancient Egypt in a Roman villa in Pompeii. The portraits clearly show the vast influence the Egyptian culture had in early Roman society. Experts speculate that some of the paintings could possibly underscore an early form of Globalization.

 Drawings Show Strong Egyptian Influence on Early Rome Daily Mail reports that paintings portraying the River Nile were found in a beautiful garden in a luxurious ancient villa in Pompeii. Experts are optimistic that these paintings will reveal a lot of secrets on how the early Roman Empire was influenced by ancient Egypt.

Complex drawings from Casa dell'Efebo – one of the largest households in the city before it was severely damaged during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 – present a series of Nilotic murals with hippopotamuses, crocodiles, lotuses and short-statured men battling with vicious beasts.

Painting of a short-statured man fighting a beast (CC by SA 3.0)

Caitlin Barrett from the department of Classics at Cornell University claimed that the drawings give the house a cosmopolitan touch and outlines how the Romans were influenced by the ancient Egyptian culture such as religion. “The paintings from the Casa dell'Efebo were created after Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but several generations after Augustus' initial conquest of Egypt. Some researchers have turned to explanations emphasizing religion: maybe paintings of Egyptian landscapes have to do with an interest in Egyptian gods,” she told IBTimes of UK. And added, “Others have interpreted these paintings as political statements: maybe this is about celebrating the conquest of Egypt. I suggest that instead of trying to apply a one-size-fits-all explanation, we should look at context and individual choices.”

Sexual Activity is Present Regardless the Political and Cultural Focus of the Paintings
It’s no secret that Pompeii was famous for its intense sexual life and wild parties. As a result of this lifestyle, many paintings discovered from that era are extremely graphic, including strong doses of excessive sexual content. Let’s not forget that when the city was rediscovered in 1599, the city became buried again (thanks to censorship) for nearly another 150 years before the king of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, ordered the proper excavation of the site during the late 1740s. As DHWTY reports in a previous Ancient Origins article, despite the erotic nature of these images, it has been suggested that they were merely an idealized version of sex. Thus, it has been postulated that the lives of the prostitutes at the most famed bordello in Pompeii, Lupanare, was far grimmer than the erotic images suggest. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the main theme of the recently discovered paintings is sex and alcohol consumption.

A fresco found within one of Pompeii’s brothels. Source: BigStockPhoto

Paintings Could Underscore a Form of Globalization
Despite the obvious themes of the paintings, Barrett also argues that they could underscore how the Romans interacted with the outside world; thus a form of globalization. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Archaeology, appears to share its views with Barrett’s suggestions and also proclaims that artifacts discovered around the garden of the household and the building’s elaborate architecture such as water installations mimic the diverse nature of the Roman Empire. Barrett stated as Daily Mail reports, “In this particular assemblage, rather than solely trying to make some kind of statement about Isiac rituals or Roman politics, the owner of this house seems to be asserting a cosmopolitan identity as a citizen of the Empire. In Pompeian houses at this time, when people are representing faraway lands in domestic art, they are also trying to figure out what it means to them to be participants in the Roman Empire.”

Representations of sexual activity, music and alcohol consumption are often central to these paintings (CC by SA 3.0)

The study adds that the paintings of the Nile in the Pompeian villa provided its owners with a unique chance to come in contact with shifting local and imperial Roman identities and to reproduce a microcosm of the world they lived in, “People sometimes imagine phenomena like globalization to be creations of the modern world. In fact, if you look at the Roman Empire there are lots of parallels for some of the cross-cultural interactions that are also very much part of our own contemporary world” the researcher of the study concludes at the end.

Top image: Painting of a scene around the River Nile in Egypt, found in Casa dell'Efebo (CC by SA 4.0)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

At home with the Romans

History Extra

A Pompeian wall painting from the first century AD shows ladies with their slave hairdresser. Excavations at the partially buried Roman city reveal that women played a prominent role in the home, and that they took personal grooming very seriously indeed. (AKG)