'Alley of balconies' uncovered at Pompeii in rare find

The Local ^ | May 17, 2018 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

A team of archaeologists at Pompeii has uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues... The discovery is unusual not just for the colour preservation, which will allow visitors to the site to see the houses almost exactly as the city's original residents did, but also because it is so unusual in Pompeii for upper storeys to have been preserved. This is because the city was buried from above, unlike nearby Herculaneum for example which was buried by volcanic ash from the ground up. Located further from the volcano than Herculaneum, Pompeii was also buried in a less thick layer of debris (four metres on average, compared to over 20 in Herculaneum), which meant conservation of the upper floors was rarer... The street is the latest in a series of novel finds over the past few weeks, with excavations underway to stabilize walls at risk of collapse. Just a week earlier, archaeologists were able to cast the complete figure of a horse for the first time ever at the site. Along with a pig and a dog, it is one of the few animals of any species to be successfully cast at Pompeii. 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.

[SunkenCiv]

The area of the discovery. Photo: Ciro Fusco/Pompeii Archaeological Park

[SunkenCiv]

[txnativegop]

thanks for posting!

[Fresh Wind]

Lots of nice pictures (though mostly not of this discovery) are here:

https://www.instagram.com/pompeii_parco_archeologico/

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

And the Hawaiians are worried about puny little Kiluweia.

[School of Rational Thought]

Nice link

[smokingfrog]

very interesting

[Does so]

Brothel slaves were pictured with white skin.

I noticed that every one of the busts and frescoes featured subjects with red or brownish hair. Not a single person with black hair, as one might expect today. Were Pompeiians of German descent? Romans? Goths? Visigoths? Ostrogoths?

I didn't see anything reflective of Christianity, either. (Not that it would have been expected so early, at 79AD).

[bmwcyle]

It is something everyone should go visit in person.

[jjotto]

Until the last generation or two, it was widely believed that ancient Greeks were of northern European stock, for the reasons you cite, and because of ancient Greek artifacts and references to blue-eyed and fair-haired Greeks.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks bmwcyle, I'm sure I'd enjoy it. :^) One of the related stories was about a tourist who vandalized one of the homes in order to get a better photo angle. IOW, not everyone should go. ;^)

[SunkenCiv]

American tourist damaged Pompeii mosaic by shifting tiles ‘to get a good photo’
https://www.thelocal.it/20180323/american-tourist-police-mosaic-pompeii

Tourist fined for stealing ancient artefacts from Pompeii
https://www.thelocal.it/20180514/tourist-fined-for-stealing-artefacts-from-pompeii

[bmwcyle]

I don’t think Freepers are really like that. Liberals yes.

[SunkenCiv]

Brothel slaves were often of Gallic origin -- that would be modern Spain (Celtiberians), France, Switzerland, and northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul).

The only sign of Christianity from that time and place I've seen is a pic of a small, apparently concealed room, I think it was in Herculaeneum and on an upper floor; the pattern of holes in the wall suggests a cross had been attached, and it may have been removed well before the eruption (owner sold the home and took the cross, or moved it to a different location, or abandoned Christianity).

Among Roman Jews, the destruction of the cities was seen as retribution for the Flavian destruction of Jerusalem.

A mirror from India with an ivory handle carved in the shape of a female fertility deity was buried under volcanic ash at Pompeii in 79 CE. Among the first images of Buddhist deities in human form were those carved in the province of Gandhara (present-day Pakistan) in the 2nd century CE. Unlike anthropomorphic Buddhist images carved farther south in India, these Gandharan figures, which were based on provincial Roman models, wear heavy, toga-like robes and have wavy hair. The figural tradition of Buddhist art spread through Central and East Asia and also to Southeast Asia, taking on local and regional characteristics. [Arts of the Silk Roads | by John Major | Asia Society]

[SunkenCiv]

I like to think so, too.

[Does so]

Brothel slaves were often of Gallic origin -- that would be modern Spain (Celtiberians), France, Switzerland, and northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul).

Thanks for that. After thinking about it further, I'm realizing that the pictured couples could be expected as appearing outdoors-tanned or indoors-not-tanned. :-P

Alternatively, the cross could have been moved to a museum.