Archeology The first genome of a Pompeii victim opens a window on life in ancient Rome
The
archaeological site of Pompeii
, in southern Italy, never ceases to amaze and today announced the
discovery of several
"middle class" apartments with
cabinets full of
locked objects from the eruption that devastated the city two millennia ago.
The director of
the archaeological park
, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, explained that the discovery of these furnished rooms offers information on the
middle and lower classes of Pompeii
, "the majority of its population but little represented in the sources".
The excavation revolves around what is known as
Casa del Larario
, a luxurious sacred space that came to light in 2018, and the experts have now entered
four of the rooms that it included
, two on the first floor and two others on the ground floor. , at street level.
Inside they have come across
numerous pieces of furniture and objects that illustrate the life
of the Pompeian "middle class" at the moment that everything ended, when the
Vesuvius volcano
erupted in 79 AD, burying this Roman colony for almost
two millennia
.
in different rooms
In one of the rooms, simple and with a
beaten earth floor
, perhaps a pantry, there was a cupboard with five shelves and two meters high that
still contains everyday objects such as glasses
, plates, ceramics, small containers and amphorae.
The cabinet is in the
exact place it was at the time of the eruption
and is partly broken because the weight of the pyroplastic material caused the roof of the house to collapse.
The
experts will continue to investigate
what the ash hides on its lower shelves, little by little to protect it.
In
another
small room, with no decoration on its walls, you can see a simple bed with part of its pillow,
a three-legged table
with a glass on top and an open trunk, as it is believed that it was emptied by its owner at the Time to
escape from the fire
.
In another of the rooms on the first floor, another cupboard has been found
with plates and glasses for domestic use
, a bronze basin and a "perfume burner" or "perfumer" in excellent condition.
"In the
Roman Empire
there was a wide swath of the population that fought for their own social status, a vulnerable class in
political crises and famines
but ambitious when it came to social climbing," Zuchtriegel explained.
"We do not know the inhabitants of the house but surely
the culture of leisure
that inspires the wonderful decoration of the patio represents a future that they dreamed of rather than
a lived reality
", pointed out the director of the site.
The
Minister of Culture
, Dario Franceschini, has celebrated this news: "
Pompeii
never ceases to amaze and is a beautiful story of recovery, proof that
if Italy works as a team and invests in young people
, research and innovation achieve extraordinary results ".
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