Items found in Pompeii home hint at life before volcanic explosion
Summary
Archaeologists found a sealed closet of household items in a home in Pompeii, the Roman city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The finds include cosmetics, coins, commercial weights and a necklace of amulets, offering clues about residents’ daily lives, though researchers cannot identify who owned them or what happened to them.Key Facts
- The closet was found in a home in central Pompeii; the house was first excavated in 1912.
- Items included cosmetics, an incense burner, a bronze lantern, a balsam jar and a decorated snuff bottle.
- Researchers found weights that may have been used for commercial activity inside a wooden chest of drawers.
- A necklace contained at least 20 miniature objects and materials, including bone and crystal; such necklaces were known as crepundia and could serve as protective amulets.
- The closet also held 38 bronze coins in a container made of plant material.
- The coins suggest the owner or owners may not have had time to retrieve their valuables, but archaeologists do not know whether they escaped or died.
- Mouse skeletons found in the home complicate assumptions about the residents’ standard of living.
- The house was previously attributed to Cornelius Maximus based on inscriptions that are no longer visible.
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