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ARCHAEOLOGY

Pompeii restored with help of artefact thieves

The ruins of Pompeii are being restored with the aid of a most unlikely source – thieves with a conscience who are returning fragments once stolen from the ancient Roman city.

Pompeii restored with help of artefact thieves
Pompeii was destroyed by a sudden volcanic eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pompeii photo: Shutterstock

In October a Canadian woman made headlines around the world when she returned a fragment she stole from Pompeii on her honeymoon 50 years ago.

Massimo Osanna, the director of one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions, said this was not an isolated case and hundreds of archaeological artefacts had been sent back to the museum in recent years, often with a letter of apology.

“We have been receiving hundreds of packages with hundreds of fragments now for years,” Osanna told the Italian daily, Il Messaggero.

“People write expressing regret, having realized they have made a terrible mistake and that they would never do it again and for this reason they are sending the stolen pieces back.

“But the most curious thing, from an anthropological point of view, are the letters that accompany the stolen fragments which reveal a cross-section of people worth studying.”

He said the Special Archaeological Superintendency which manages Pompeii and other ancient sites had received tiles, pieces of painted plaster, bricks and stone in the post.

Osanna said that one particular fresco fragment that had been returned was crucial in the restoration of the Casa del Frutteto, or house of the orchard keeper. It was stolen in the 1980s and sent back to officials in March.

Alessandro Pintucci, the president of the Italian Confederation of Archaeologists, welcomed the latest news saying it was important for stolen objects to be returned but warned more security was needed to stop historical artefacts being stolen from cultural sites.

"This is a problem not only for Pompeii, but many other sites," he told The Local. "For too long there has not been enough security."

"When I worked at Pompeii between 1999 and 2003, areas that were closed to the public were often easy targets for robberies because it was easy to enter. It doesn't take much to grab a piece of a mosaic or a tile and walk away."

Pompeii was destroyed by a sudden volcanic eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts around 2.5 million visitors every year.

READ MORE: Pompeii: Canadian gives back relic after 50 years

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HISTORY

Italian archaeologists uncover slave room at Pompeii in ‘rare’ find

Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a "slave room" in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologists in Pompeii who discovered a room which likely housed slaves. 
Archaeologists said the newly-discovered room in Pompeii likely housed slaves charged with maintaining chariots.  Photo: Archaeological Park of Pompeii press office.

The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.

An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining and prepping the chariot.

READ ALSO: 8 things you probably didn’t know about the Romans

“This is a window into the precarious reality of people who rarely appear in historical sources, written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite,” said Pompeii’s director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.

Photo: Archaeological Park of Pompeii press office.

The “unique testimony” into how “the weakest in the ancient society lived… is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries in my life as an archaeologist,” he said in a press release.

Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing those who hadn’t managed to leave the city in time. They were either crushed by collapsing buildings or killed by thermal shock.

The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds – one of which was child sized – there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner.

Photo: Archaeological Park of Pompeii press office.

The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found resting on one of the beds.

The remains of three horses were found in a stable in a dig earlier this year.

“The room grants us a rare insight into the daily reality of slaves, thanks to the exceptional state of preservation of the room,” the Pompeii archaeological park said.

READ ALSO: Four civilizations in Italy that pre-date the Roman Empire

Image: Archaeological Park of Pompeii press office.

Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite — the rock made of volcanic ash — that covered them, it said.

The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them.

The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.

While two were around 1.7 metres long, one measured just 1.4 metres, and may therefore have belonged to a child.

The archaeological park said the three slaves may have been a family.

Archaeologists found several personal objects under the beds, including amphorae for private things, ceramic jugs and what might be a chamber pot.

The room was lit by a small upper window, and there are no traces or wall decorations, just a mark believed to have been left by a lantern hung on a wall.

“This incredible new discovery at Pompeii demonstrates that today the archaeological site has become not only one of the most desirable visitor destinations in the world, but also a place where research is carried out and new and experimental technologies are employed,” said Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini.

“Thanks to this important new discovery, our knowledge of the daily life of ancient Pompeians has been enriched, particularly of that element of society about which little is known even today. Pompeii is a model of study that is unique in the world.”

READ ALSO: Why is Italy called Italy?

The excavation is part of a programme launched in 2017 aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artefacts that can be sold on illicit markets.

The Villa of Civita Giuliana had been the target of systematic looting for years. There was evidence some of the “archaeological heritage” in this so-called Slave Room had also been lost to looters, the park said.

Damage by grave robbers in the villa had been estimated so far at almost two million euros ($2.3 million), it added.

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