Fantastically-Preserved Frescoes with Figures from the Trojan Struggle Found in a Lavish Pompeii Residence


Picture through  Pom­peii Archae­o­log­i­cal Park

Imag­ine vis­it­ing the house of a promi­nent, rich fig­ure, and on the night’s finish discover­ing your­self in a room ded­i­cat­ed to late-night enter­tain­ing, paint­ed complete­ly black apart from just a few scenes from antiq­ui­ty. Per­haps this might­n’t sound complete­ly implau­si­ble in, say, twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry Sil­i­con Val­ley. However such locations additionally exist­ed in antiq­ui­ty itself: or a minimum of certainly one of them did, as current­ly dis­cov­ered in Pom­peii. Pre­served for close to­ly two mil­len­nia now by the ash of Mount Vesu­vius, the ruins of that metropolis give us the clear­est and most detailed archae­o­log­i­cal insights we now have into life on the peak of the Roman Empire — however even right now, a 3rd of the location has but to be exca­vat­ed.

That archae­o­log­i­cal dig con­tin­ues apace, and its lat­est dis­cov­ery — newer than the Pom­pei­ian “snack bar” and “piz­za” pre­vi­ous­ly fea­tured right here on Open Cul­ture — is “a spec­tac­u­lar ban­quet­ing room with ele­gant black partitions, dec­o­rat­ed with mytho­log­i­cal char­ac­ters and sub­jects impressed by the Tro­jan Struggle,” includ­ing such mytho­log­i­cal char­ac­ters as Helen, Paris, Cas­san­dra, and Apol­lo.

“It professional­vid­ed a refined set­ting for enter­tain­ment dur­ing con­vivial moments, whether or not ban­quets or con­ver­sa­tions, with the clear purpose of pur­su­ing an ele­gant way of life, replicate­ed by the dimensions of the house, the pres­ence of fres­coes and mosaics dat­ing to the Third Type.”

Fres­coes in that Roman Third Type, explains Hyper­al­ler­gic’s Rhea Nay­yar, fea­ture “small, advantageous­ly paint­ed fig­ures and sub­jects that appear to drift with­in mono­chro­mat­ic fields,” designed “to mim­ic framed artworks or altars by way of illu­sions resem­bling carved beams, shad­ed pil­lars, and shin­ing can­de­labras — all of which have been paint­ed on flat partitions.”

The col­or of these partitions, on this case, appears to have been cho­sen to cover the automotive­bon deposits left by oil lamps burn­ing all night time lengthy. As report­ed by BBC Sci­ence Information, the com­mis­sion­er of this room, and certainly of the lav­ish home wherein it’s locat­ed, might have been Aulus Rustius Verus, a “super-rich” native politi­cian who — assum­ing deci­sive archae­o­log­i­cal evi­dence emerges in his favor — additionally knew easy methods to par­ty.

through Hyper­al­ler­gic

Relat­ed con­tent:

A New­ly-Dis­cov­ered Fres­co in Pom­peii Reveals a Pre­cur­sor to Piz­za

Take a Excessive Def, Guid­ed Tour of Pom­peii

Archae­ol­o­gists Dis­cov­er an Historical Roman Snack Bar within the Ruins of Pom­peii

Behold 3D Recre­ations of Pompeii’s Lav­ish Houses — as They Exist­ed Earlier than the Erup­tion of Mount Vesu­vius

Watch the Destruc­tion of Pom­peii by Mount Vesu­vius, Re-Cre­at­ed with Com­put­er Ani­ma­tion (79 AD)

Pom­peii Rebuilt: A Tour of the Historical Metropolis Earlier than It Was Entombed by Mount Vesu­vius

Primarily based in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His initiatives embody the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities, the e-book The State­much less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les and the video sequence The Metropolis in Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­e-book.



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