By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) – Archaeologists have discovered four new rooms in a house in Pompeii filled with plates, amphoras and other everyday objects, giving a glimpse of middle-class life as the eruption of the Vesuvius buried the Roman city in 79 AD.
Remains of bowls, a hastily emptied chest, a bed and a cradle-shaped terracotta incense burner have been found on two floors of a previously excavated building, the Pompeii Archaeological Park authority said on Saturday. .
Some were more valuable than others – bronze or glass vessels next to everyday tools.
“Much of the population of the Roman Empire was made up of people who sweated for their daily bread but were also concerned with raising their social status,” said park manager Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
Archaeologists have taken plaster casts to replicate some of the artifacts from the site of Pompeii, one of Italy’s top tourist attractions near the modern city of Naples.
The rest of the structure, excavated in 2018, includes a courtyard decorated with frescoes of plants, birds, and hunting scenes. A niche housing the house’s guardian gods, or Lares, gave “House Larario” its popular name.
“The owners of the Larario house in Pompeii had been able to decorate the courtyard housing the Lares site and a well with exceptional paintings, but obviously they did not have enough money for all the pieces,” Zuchtriegel added. .
“We don’t know who lived here, but the good life depicted in the courtyard was probably more of an aspiration than a daily reality.”
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
