“BLUE ROOM” UNEARTHED IN POMPEII AFTER 2,000 YEARS

Fri 14 June 2024:

An ornate “blue room” has been uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii after being buried for nearly 2,000 years. Despite the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that devastated Pompeii, new discoveries continue to emerge from the ancient site.

According to a press release from the Archaeological Parks of Pompeii, the newly found room features female figures carved on cerulean-painted walls. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the site’s director, told NBC News that this is a “very unusual thing for Pompeii,” highlighting that blue “was the most expensive colour” due to the difficulty in producing it. “You had to import it from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean and beyond. So it was expensive, and if you wanted to have something in blue, you had to pay more. Red, yellow, and black were much easier to produce because natural materials like stone and sand were widely available,” he said.

The room, measuring nearly 90 square feet, was initially excavated during the Bourbon period (1813-1840) but was only recently rediscovered and revealed on May 27.

Located in block No. 10 of Pompeii’s ninth section, an area previously unexcavated since the 79 A.D. eruption, the room’s walls are decorated with female figures representing the four seasons, as well as scenes of agriculture and sheep farming. The Archaeological Park of Pompeii described the room as “a sacrarium, a shrine devoted to ritual activities and the storage of sacred objects.”

Experts noted that the blue pigment is particularly significant as “the colour blue found in this room rarely occurs in Pompeian frescoes and was generally used for elaborately decorated rooms.” The room was either a sacrarium or a Roman sanctuary “devoted to ritual activities and the storage of sacred objects.”

Archaeologists also discovered 15 transport amphorae, large vases, along with a set of bronze objects including two jugs and two lamps in the room.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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