Posted on 06/11/2024 11:47:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Recent excavations in Pompeii have uncovered a remarkable room with walls painted in a vivid, sky-blue hue, a color seldom seen in Pompeian ruins.
This room, discovered in the Insula 10 area of Regio IX, is thought to have served as a sacrarium, a space dedicated to pagan rituals and the preservation of sacred objects.
The walls of this 8-square-meter room, known as Room 32, are adorned with frescoes in the Fourth Style, characterized by its intricate and narrative aesthetic...
The sacrarium's walls are painted a brilliant sky blue, a color rarely seen in Pompeian frescoes and typically reserved for spaces of great significance. The blue backdrop is complemented by red-lined niches, where statues and other devotional objects likely stood.
The frescoes depict female figures representing the four seasons, agriculture, and shepherding. These figures are adorned with crowns of flowers, flowing garments, and in some cases, depicted without clothes, adding to the room's mystical aura...
Among the discoveries were 15 amphorae, two jugs, two lamps, and three decorative boxes embedded in the walls that likely held devotional statues. Building materials such as piles of oyster shells, intended to be mixed with plaster and mortar, indicate that the house was undergoing renovations at the time of the eruption...
This discovery aligns with the broader context of Roman literature and art, where the pastoral and agrarian themes often symbolized a nostalgic return to simpler times. Works like Virgil's "Georgics" and "Eclogues" celebrated the rural idyll while acknowledging the tension between the idyllic past and the realities of contemporary Roman life. The room's decorations may reflect this cultural ambivalence, embodying both reverence for agricultural deities and a longing for the lost simplicity of rural life.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeologymag.com ...
later
I spent a day in Pompeii many years ago.It was an amazing experience despite the fact that I got the worst sunburn of my life that day (it was July).I’d love to go back....in March or October...and visit Herculaneum as well.
Ostia antica, near Rome, is also very worth visiting--like Pompeii without the crowds.
Thanks! Never heard that brfore...
This kills the theory that the ancients didn’t see the color blue.
Yes...Ostia is on my list for the next trip..I had not realized it was accessible by train from Rome.
I agree a tour with a good guide is a must. It kind of makes you feel like you where there so many years ago. Pompeii is a must see.
Since that wasn't the theory, no it doesn't.
Despite all the arguments below, I think the notion that they couldn’t see blue came originally from a phrase in Homer;that was hundreds of years before the destruction of Pompeii, and we don’t know when the ‘blue room’ was painted.
I don’t know if they saw ‘blue’ or not; but my Bolivian friend calls my obviously green eyes ‘azul’...
How beautiful. Pompeii must have been a very highly aesthetic society, as Italy has remained, in fact. I wish I could go back again and see the very many things that have been uncovered in the past 30 years since I was there the second time. Maybe not go in the scorching summer, now that I’m a geezer.
:^) If I wind up going to Italy, I could take a plane flight over, but would have to come back by boat, due to the food available in Florence, Rome, and Naples. :^)
It was one of the places, along with Herculaneum that I would have liked to have visited. Too old now to get around, so I settle for British-made documentary series on them. Recently watched a program titled "The Lost Scrolls of Vesuvius", which aired in mid-May. It featured the use of AI to virtually unwrap the carbonized scrolls found at the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. The TV program was presented by British Archaeologist Dr. Alice Roberts, and featured computer scientist Dr. Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky who has been working on this project for many years.
I did a search and found this:
"Blue was imported to Pompeii from Egypt. In keeping with its origins, it was originally called ‘Egyptian blue’, but was later known as ‘Pompeian blue’. It was an absolute luxury – and had been used to decorate walls in ancient Egypt since at least 2,500 B.C. Even then, prices were determined by supply and demand; in Pompeii, blue was so highly sought after that its price sometimes even surpassed that of the astronomically expensive purple."
Egyptian blue information:
Not sure this has been mentioned, but there’s also ‘tekhelet’:
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-blue-20180910-htmlstory.html
Thanks for the link!!
Yes, Ostia is an easy train ride from Rome. Most passengers are headed for the beach but you will need to get off the stop before. The entrance to the site is maybe 100 yards from the train stop.
I have a blue house
With a blue window
Blue is the colour of all that I wear
Blue are the streets
And all the trees are too
I have a girlfriend and she is so blue
Blue are the people here
That walk around
Blue like my corvette its in and outside
Blue are the words I say
And what I think
Blue are the feelings
That live inside me
I’m blue
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Not sure I understand — would the boat trip help you avoid the tempting food, or do you anticipate that a boat trip would include those three distinctly different cuisines? If you want them, I say rent a car and drive up from Pompeii through Napoli and Roma to Firenze and fly home from there. Or, you could skip Rome, since it is congested and expensive, and go to Siena in between Naples and Genoa.
I wasn’t trying to cause you to have an emotional reaction.
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