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ARCHAEOLOGY

IN PICTURES: Spectacular house with colourful animal frescoes discovered in Pompeii

Archaeologists working at Pompeii continue to uncover incredible finds, 270 years since the remains of the ancient city were first discovered.

Published: 23 May 2018 17:18 CEST
IN PICTURES: Spectacular house with colourful animal frescoes discovered in Pompeii
All photos in the article: Sergio Siano/Archaeological site of Pompeii

The latest discovery is a newly unearthed house with brightly coloured animal frescoes, revealed at the site earlier this week.

The residence, which probably belonged to a member of Pompeii's upper class, has been named the House of Dolphins.

As well as the marine mammals that give the site its name, the house's frescoes also show several fish and birds, including a peacock, a partridge, and a parrot. Deer and mythical creatures are also depicted.

Excavations are currently underway in Regio V, a northeastern area of the archaeological park which had not been excavated since the immediate postwar period with some spots completely untouched.

The House of Dolphins was uncovered just a few days after an alleyway of grand houses with mostly intact balconies was found nearby. 

READ ALSO: Tourist damaged Pompeii mosaic by shifting tiles 'to get a good photo'

Just a week before that, archaeologists were able to cast the complete figure of a horse for the first time ever at the site.

And a month earlier, an excavation uncovered the complete skeleton of a young child in a bathhouse long thought to have been fully excavated. That find was the first time a complete skeleton has been discovered at Pompeii in some 20 years, and the first time a child's remains have come to light in around half a century.

The metres of ash that buried the city when Mount Vesuvius erupted meant intricate details were extremely well preserved.

The population of Pompeii is thought to have numbered around 10,000 and as well as the ornate houses, archaeologists have unearthed baths, a gym, and an amphitheatre in the city.

Many of the frescoes revealed on Tuesday were painted in characteristic 'Pompeii red', though in some cases experts believe this colour was created when gases from Vesuvius reacted with originally yellow paint. 

Today, Pompeii is one of the most popular attractions for visitors to Italy, and has UNESCO World Heritage status.

All photos: Sergio Siano/Archaeological site of Pompeii.

TODAY IN FRANCE

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

France has paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were then interned in French camps.

Published: 16 May 2023 08:29 CEST
France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

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