Photos: Ciro Fusco / Pompeii Parco Archeologico
Frescoes in Pompeii’s newly discovered “Enchanted Garden” room. The ashes of Mount Vesuvius left the ancient city remarkably intact after the volcano erupted in 79 AD.
When my younger grandson told me about a volcano in Guadalupe, where Suzanne’s family spent the holiday, he hastened to reassure me that it didn’t erupt. He’s six, and a stickler for fact.
Whether young or old, we are all fascinated by the extraordinary power of volcanoes and the way they change the world very suddenly, sometimes with no warning at all.
The complete destruction of Pompeii by the volcano Vesuvius in Italy is one of the reasons eruptions have such a hold over the collective imagination.
Interestingly, Pompeii continues to yield previously unseen beauty to archaeologists even after all these years.
As Sarah Cascone reported in October at ArtNetNews, “Pompeii is the city that keeps on giving. More than two hundred and fifty years after the ancient Roman town was discovered buried under a heap of volcanic ash, the archeological finds show no sign of abating. Now, archaeologists for the Great Pompei Project have uncovered yet another impressive discovery: an ancient shrine, or lararium, covered in gorgeously preserved frescoes, in a 16-by-12-foot room containing an altar, a garden, and a small pool.
“The Italian media has dubbed the new room, which would have been partially covered by a tile roof, ‘the Enchanted Garden.’ The figures in the paintings include two serpents, a wild boar fighting unidentified creatures against a blood-red backdrop, and a mysterious man with the head of a dog that may have been inspired by the Egyptian god Anubis. In front of a painted peacock, strolling through the plants, there would have been a planted flower bed, extending the illusionistic decorative design into the real world.
“ ‘It is the first time that such complex decoration has been found in a space dedicated to worship inside a house,’ Massimo Osanna, the director of the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, told the Wall Street Journal, praising the find as exceptional.
“ ‘Every house had a lararium of some kind,’ Ingrid Rowland, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and the author of From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town, told the New York Times. But ‘only the wealthiest people could have afforded a lararium inside a special chamber with a raised pool and sumptuous decorations.’
“After clearing out the volcanic rock fragments, or lapili, that had buried the room for almost two millennia, archaeologists found an altar decorated with eggs, a symbol of fertility. There are burnt remains, which archaeologists believe may have contained food offerings, such as eggs, figs, or nuts, to fertility deities. The altar is flanked by paintings of the Roman gods of household rituals. …
“New excavations are much more careful than the original explorations of the site, which began in 1748. Without modern technology and techniques to aid their excavations, early archaeologists could be quite destructive. The new discovery helps provide a better understanding of what the early excavations would have looked like when first uncovered. …
“Since 2011, Italy has been carrying out much-needed preservation and restoration work to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Great Pompeii Project, an initiative aimed at stemming the deterioration of the ancient structures, had an initial budget of €105 million ($140 million). … The discovery of the ‘Enchanted Garden’ represents perhaps the project’s greatest success thus far.”
More here.
In Pompeii, a recently uncovered household shrine, or lararium, features two serpents among its beautifully preserved frescoes.
That’s amazing! Our family was just discussing this powerful volcanic wonder,when an elderly gentleman and his wife posted their visit to Mt Vesuvius,his photos are lovely. Check it out…Sartenade’s photo blog
Will do. Thank you!
I’ll add this link for readers: https://sartenada.wordpress.com.
Lovely fish faced bearded Mohican sea serpents! Not seen one of those for ages : )
Wow! It’s a real thing? I thought it must be a fantasy creature.
Lol Maybe real, maybe fantasy, maybe somewhere between. I couldn’t possibly say : )
From the log of the ship Lucille en route from Mauritius to London…
“In lat. 48.51 N., and long. 12.14, W., observed something extraordinary on the starboard quarter, about a mile [1.6 km] distant, coming towards the ship at a brisk rate, and on nearing us found it to be an enormous serpent; which, when abreast of the brig, we judged to be (from our own length, 81 feet [24.7 m]) upwards of 100 feet [30 m], that length being plainly visible from the deck with our glasses. It had a tremendous flat head, and apparently a horn or fin behind, with large bunches of hair about it; it propelled itself by an undulating snake like motion, and held on a steady course to E.SE. at a rate of 6 or 7 miles per hour [10 -11 kph], causing great motion in the water, and leaving a large wake behind it. This strange monster passed within a quarter of a mile [400 metres] of the ship, and we watched it, as long as it was visible, from the mainyard with our glasses.”
Signed by:
“H. B. Benson, Commander.
“S. E. Suncombe, Second Mate.
“A. W. Owen, late Commander )
“S. G. Reay.
Sounds a little familiar doesn’t he?
That is wonderful! What a laugh! I will consider him real. I believe in the Loch Ness Monster, after all.
I like seeing this sort of discovery out of Pompeii but I hate to see the discoveries of people and animals, caught in the terror of their last moments. What a cataclysm.
Yes, and the more recent tragedy in Guatemala makes one realize that poor people often have no choice but to live in dangerous places.