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Known as a termopolium, Latin for hot drinks counter, the shop was discovered in the archaeological park's Regio V site, which is not yet open the public, and unveiled on Saturday. Traces of nearly 2,000-year-old food were found in some of the deep terra cotta jars containing hot food which the shop keeper lowered into a counter with circular holes. Archaeologists also found a decorated bronze drinking bowl known as a patera, ceramic jars used for cooking stews and soups, wine flasks and amphora. Pompeii, 23 km (14 miles) southeast of Naples, was home to about 13,000 people...

Monkeys appear in Grecian frescoes dating back to the Bronze Age 3,600 years ago, but monkeys aren't native to Greece or the Aegean isles. But it's clear that the artists actually saw these monkeys in Grecian frescoes, or at least talked to someone who did in great detail, because the depictions are so accurate that researchers can identify the monkeys, according to a new study. Vervet monkeys appear in a fresco from Akrotiri, Thera. They're known for their rounded muzzles, a white band on the forehead, an extended tail and elongated limbs -- all accurately shown in the fresco. Baboons...

Marsyas, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons / ChurchPOP The Church is the mystical body of Christ. In Scripture, Jesus says “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Mt 18.20)So the Church doesn’t strictly need special buildings, because the Church is the people. Nonetheless, from early on, Christians dedicated buildings for their communal worship to God. Most of these early churches are long lost to history, yet a few from the first few centuries still remain, at least in some condition. Here is a picture of the oldest known church that’s still standing (at least partially): Wikimedia...

Widespread use of a damaging conservation technique has seen many of Italy's Renaissance frescoes darken and crumble. That degradation can now be stopped in its tracks. In the 1960s conservators began coating frescoes in clear acrylic polymers to preserve them, but the treatment has had the opposite effect. "The acrylic makes the fresco look brilliant and well preserved initially," says Piero Baglioni, a chemist at the University of Florence. "But as the plaster can no longer breathe, degradation beneath the coating actually speeds up, due to calcium salt and humidity build-up."

Study Reveals Why Blue Frescoes Fade Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsKeeping Blue Bright Oct. 13, 2006 — Medieval and Renaissance Madonnas will no longer risk their vibrant blue mantels turning into yellowish grey robes, according to U.S. researchers who have discovered why natural ultramarine blue sometimes fades in frescoes. Known as "ultramarine sickness," the irreversible form of discoloration has been observed in frescoes at the Church of Saint Augustine in San Gimigniano, near Siena, and in the Basilica of Assisi. "Our studies explain for the first time the process of fading in ultramarines and may lead to the design of proper...

Italy Thwarts Basilica Attack Plot Tue Aug 20, 2:43 PM ET A Moroccan man is shown walking in the San Patronio Basilica in Bologna, northern Italy, in this picture taken from a home video seized Monday by Italian authorities and made available Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002, during a press conference. Four Moroccans and an Italian, left, whose names were not made public, were arrested Monday under the suspiscion of terrorism after they filmed themselves near the central altar and the frescoes in the basilica. (AP Photo/Gianfilippo Oggioni, HO) By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer ROME (AP) - Italian police arrested...