9 February 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Archaeologists Uncover Elegant Rare Blue Frescoes of an Ancient Sanctuary in Pompeii

Archaeologists digging away at ash covering the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered a room with walls frescoed in an unusual and sublime sky blue.

In Pompeii’s Regio IX neighborhood, the area known as Insula 10 is still being excavated by archaeologists. Archaeologists are still excavating this area, and a recent discovery includes a gorgeous sky-blue sacrarium, a place for ritual and the preservation of holy artifacts—brilliant red lines the niches, where statues and other devotional iconography likely stood.

The 8-square-meter room is decorated in the Fourth Style (c. 60–79 C.E.), an intricate aesthetic that was less ornamental than its predecessor but took a more narrative and architectural approach. Against the azure background, female figures pose gracefully, their garments blowing in the breeze. Four of the women represent the seasons. Two are allegories of agriculture and pastoralism, the former indicated by a plow, the latter by the pedum, a short staff used by shepherds.

Photo: Archaeological Park of Pompeii

When Mount Vesuvius erupted, researchers think the room was being used for storage as part of a larger renovation. In addition to building supplies and a stack of empty oyster shells that were probably intended to be ground and added to plaster, the team discovered 15 amphorae, two jugs, and two lamps in the area.

Pompeiians typically reserved blue for the most sacred of spaces, and neither the color nor the accompanying frescoes appear in a discovery nearby. Therefore, the team suggested that the room was used for pagan rituals and storing sacred objects as the blue color has only been found in places of great importance.

As noted by the History Blog, archaeologists also excavated the servants’ quarters of the villa of Civita Giuliana, a stark contrast to the sacrarium. In the servants’ quarters of the villa of Civita Giuliana, another exceptional discovery of work tools and supplies shows how the other half lived.

There are no glorious frescoes in this small space. The room contained a bed, work tools, a basket, rope, and wooden planks, the shapes of which were preserved by volcanic matter, and researchers were able to recreate their forms in plaster.

Archaeologists explain: “As the ash solidified, forming a very solid layer known as “cinerite,” organic material such as human bodies, animals, or wooden objects decayed, leaving a void in the ground. These voids can be filled with plaster during excavation, to regain the original shape from the “negative” impression. A technique that led to extraordinary results in the villa of Civita Giuliana, from the casts of two victims and a horse to those of the modest beds in the servile quarter.”

POMPEII

Cover Photo: Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Related Articles

People may have been cooking curries in South-East Asia for at least 2000 years

22 July 2023

22 July 2023

Archaeologists have found remnants of eight spices on a sandstone slab from an archaeological site in Vietnam, showing the early...

8,500-year-old marble statuette found in Çatalhöyük

28 December 2021

28 December 2021

In the 29th season of the excavations in Çatalhöyük, one of the first urbanization models in Anatolia, in the Çumra...

Trian Fountain to Be Revived After 1900 Years

17 April 2021

17 April 2021

The Trian fountain in the ancient city of Laodikeia in Denizli will be revived after 1900 years. CHP’s Merkezefendi Municipality...

A stone bathtub, which is considered to be the first example of ‘water birth’, was found in Ani Ruins

7 September 2022

7 September 2022

A stone tub was found in the large bath, whose birth was mentioned in a work by the Turkish scholar...

The latest discovery at the villa Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii, the remains of a slave room

7 November 2021

7 November 2021

Ella IDE Pompeii archaeologists announced Saturday the discovery of the remnants of a “slave room” in an exceedingly unusual find...

Researchers may have found the wreck of British explorer James Cook’s Endeavour

3 February 2022

3 February 2022

The wreck of Captain James Cook’s famed vessel the Endeavour has been found off the coast of the U.S. state...

Oldest found human traces on Roof of the World, Is it art?

21 October 2021

21 October 2021

Dr. David Zhang and his team’s investigations of Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau in 2018 and 2020 sparked controversy, along...

Rare 832 copper coins from the Portuguese era unearthed in Goa, India

11 November 2023

11 November 2023

In Sattari, Nanoda, in the state of Goa on the west coast of India, 832 copper coins that are believed...

The first Bull Geoglyph discovered in central Asia

29 September 2021

29 September 2021

Archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of History of Material Culture (IIMK RAS) and LLC Krasnoyarsk Geoarchaeology discovered...

Czech experimental archaeologists successfully completed their 1-month voyage in the Aegean Sea using a replica of a prehistoric vessel

17 July 2023

17 July 2023

Radomír Tichý, an archeology professor at the University of Hradec Králové who is also the director of the Všestary Archeopark,...

Archaeological settlements dating back 3000 years found in Qurayat, Oman

2 October 2022

2 October 2022

Archaeological research in Oman’s Qurayat Province has revealed numerous archaeological and historical settlements, some dating back more than 3,000 years...

60-million-year-old Snail Fossil Found in southern Turkey

22 May 2021

22 May 2021

A snail fossil dating to the age of 60 million was found in Mersin’s Toroslar district. The snail fossil discovered...

A previously unknown Roman fort discovered in Pembrokeshire in Wales

8 August 2024

8 August 2024

A previously unknown Roman fort has been discovered in north Pembrokeshire. The site, which has excited archaeologists, had been hidden...

21 Copperplate Inscriptions discovered at Ghanta Matham in India

14 June 2021

14 June 2021

During excavations at Ghanta Matham in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh,  important 21 copper plates for the Mallikarjuna Swami...

2,000-Year-Old Iron Age and Roman Treasures Found in Wales Could Point to an Unknown Roman Settlement

12 May 2023

12 May 2023

A metal detectorist found a pile of exceptionally preserved Roman and Iron Age objects buried 2,000 years ago in a...