Archaeologists working at the ancient ruins of Pompeii announced their latest findings Thursday. It was a formal dining room that offered a glimpse into how some of the wealthy residents lived, or at least artwork that you could meditate on while you ate.
Experts say it is painted a deep black to avoid staining with soot from candle smoke, and the walls are divided into panels. Some of them are decorated with couples related to the Trojan War.
The dining room is a part of the island, equivalent to a city block, excavated in connection with a project to strengthen the boundary between excavated and unexcavated areas of the city, part of which remains underground . This project will help to better preserve the ruins.
“People gathered together to eat after sunset, especially after drinking a few glasses of good wine from Campania. The flickering light of the lamps had the effect of making the images appear to be moving,” Pompeii Archeology Park Director Gabriel Zstriegel said in a news release about the dining area. “Mythical couples offered the idea of conversations about the past and life, but they seemed only of a romantic nature. In reality, it refers to the relationship between the individual and his destiny.”
The couples include Helen of Troy and Paris, and the scene confirms a Greek inscription of Helen's alias Alexander, and the same wall panel depicts Helen's parents, Queen Leda of Sparta, and Zeus depicted as a swan. It is. Who seduced her? Across the room, he faces Helen, her maid, Paris, and a depressed-looking dog. There is Cassandra, who can see her future, and Apollo, who cursed her so that her prophecies would not be believed.
Zstriegel said in a telephone interview that there is evidence that the room was part of a building that was being repaired when Mount Vesuvius suddenly erupted in 79 AD and buried the city in pumice and ash.
“It seems like the whole island was being rebuilt at the moment of the eruption,” he says. Zuchtriegel said the reconstruction may have been the result of an earthquake that rocked the city “several months before” Vesuvius erupted.
In another recently excavated room adjacent to the dining room, archaeologists uncovered stacks of roof tiles, work tools, bricks and lime, discoveries that provide insight into ancient building techniques and the use of concrete. did.
Over the past year, various areas of the island have been excavated, providing new understanding of how the ancient inhabitants lived. For example, one room connected to the bakery is a dark room whose only windows are barred, suggesting that enslaved people lived alongside donkeys. Frescoes in another room seem to indicate that the locals liked pizza, or at least its original form. The election inscription on the bakery suggests that vote buying is not unheard of.
Zuftriegel said the frescoes in the dining room were painted in the so-called Third Style, which was popular in Pompeii from around 15 BC to the mid-1st century AD, and there are signs that they were modified and restored in ancient times.
“You can tell the difference because the colors are a little different,” he said.
The dining hall is currently closed to the public as further excavations are underway.
“You never know what's going to be there, and that's the great thing about it,” Zuchtriegel said.