Decades of archeological finds went on public display on Monday in Pompeii, Italy, shedding further light on the ancient Roman city destroyed by a volcanic eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.
One is a sorcerer’s toolbox including dozens of amulets, rings, statuettes and other good luck charms made of ivory, bronze, glazed ceramics and amber — they were clearly not enough to protect the city from doom.
“It’s one of the most peculiar things we found during our excavations: Amulets we found in a box in a house ... which seem to belong to a woman — or a man, perhaps — who used magic,” said Massimo Osanna, the director of the Pompeii Archeological Park, in southern Italy.
Photo: AP
He was speaking at the inauguration of the Antiquarium, a refurbished museum housing bronze statues, frescoes, gold and silver jewels, as well as the haunting casts of those killed when Vesuvius erupted in October 79 AD.
“You have some of the most important objects uncovered here since the 19th century. So really, this Antiquarium takes you through the centuries of Pompeii’s history, up until the fateful day of the eruption,” Osanna said.
The room that chronicles the last days of the city is “the most poignant part [of the exhibition],” the Italian archeologist added.
Photo: AP
The plaster casts of the dead, including small children, were made by filling voids left by their bodies in the calcified layers of ash.
Osanna has headed the Pompeii park since 2014 and overseen a major conservation project, mostly funded by the EU, which revitalized a UNESCO world heritage site formerly plagued by neglect and building collapses.
Last month, archeologists announced the unique discovery of a thermopolium, a fast-food bar.
It had surviving polychrome decorations, and traces of food and wine that offered an unprecedented glimpse of the snacking habits of the ancient Romans.
A team found duck bone fragments, as well as the remains of pigs, goats, fish and snails in earthenware pots, one of which “gave off a very strong stench of wine,” archeologist Teresa Virtuoso said.
The frescoes decorating the site included electioneering slogans and graffiti, scribbled over the image of a dog, in which a man — presumed to be a former slave — was accused of practicing sex with dogs.
In 2019, Pompeii had more than 3.9 million visitors, making it Italy’s third-most popular tourist destination, after the Colosseum and Roman forum complex, and the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.
However, like most other cultural sites in Italy, it has been mostly shut in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is almost as if you can see Pompeii’s inner soul, its spirit,” Osanna said. “This is an abandoned city, and seeing it empty of tourists perhaps makes you think harder about the dreadful catastrophe that forever ended life here and reduced to silence a community that was bustling.”
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
CORRUPTION PROBE: ‘I apologize for causing concern to the people, even though I am someone insignificant,’ Kim Keon-hee said ahead of questioning by prosecutors The wife of South Korea’s ousted former president Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday was questioned by a special prosecutor as investigators expanded a probe into suspicions of stock manipulation, bribery and interference in political party nominations. The investigation into Kim Keon-hee is one of three separate special prosecutor probes launched by the government targeting the presidency of Yoon, who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 last year. The incident came during a seemingly routine standoff with the opposition, who he described as “anti-state” forces abusing their legislative majority to obstruct
RSS