Painting Pompeii
Richly painted frescoes enlivened the often dark and claustrophobic rooms of Roman houses. How was this interior world of colour created? Dalu Jones celebrates the triumph of Pompeii and Herculaneum’s frescoes.
Campania
Let’s go on a pub crawl around Pompeii!
Join Andrew Selkirk for a trip around the bars in Pompeii and find out where to go with your loved one for a slap-up meal.
Exploring a Roman house in VR
In order to explore how this lavish home was experienced by Roman viewers, researchers first used 3D-modelling software to create a reconstruction of the house. This 3D model was based on information from an earlier Lund University project that digitally mapped a neighbourhood in Pompeii, in combination with records from the excavation of the house and other information about Roman architecture.
Underground Naples
The layers of tunnels under Naples preserve traces of Greek life and death in ancient Italy. Dalu Jones heads beneath the surface to visit ongoing restoration work that is making an ancient tomb and its rare surviving Greek paintings accessible to the public.
Researchers sequence entire genome of Vesuvius victim
Analysis of the Pompeian individual's skeletal remains revealed they likely suffered from spinal tuberculosis.
Pompeii’s robot archaeologist
'Spot' is equipped to carry out routine inspections and monitor the safety of the site.
Volcanoes Quiz
In which year did the eruption of Mount Vesuvius bury Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and mud?
Ancient Greek necropolis to welcome visitors in June 2022
The Ipogeo dei Cristallini is situated just outside the limits of ancient Neapolis.
Slaves’ room found in Pompeii
The discovery grants us a glimpse of the people who were behind the day-to-day running of the villa
News in brief: Roman diets, a Byzantine warrior, and Cassowary chicks
A brief look at some of the latest exciting archaeological stories.
Tomb of a wealthy Pompeiian uncovered
The sealed funerary chamber ensured the preservation of the remains buried in the tomb, including some hair as well as a skeleton.
Males and females at Herculaneum had different diets, research suggests
‘Males had greater access to marine fish at Herculaneum and more broadly in Roman Italy.’
Mummified human remains discovered at Pompeii
Wax tablet archives revealed that the deceased was a public slave and a custodian of the Temple of Venus.
Last supper in Pompeii
The Romans’ passion for fine dining is well known – now a mouth-watering new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum shows how the production, distribution and consumption for food and wine coloured every aspect of Roman life, as its curator Paul Roberts explains
World news: Pompeii chariot, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Australian rock art
A round-up of three Archaeological news stories from around the world, including the discovery of a chariot near Pompeii, new Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judean Desert, and early rock art in Australia.
Ceremonial chariot found in Pompeii
This is a unique find, representing the only vehicle of this type found in Italy to date.
Pompeii’s VIP Vehicle
Excavations at the Roman villa of Civita Giuliana have uncovered a remarkable four-wheeled ceremonial chariot.
World News: Italy, Norway, New Mexico
Victims of Vesuvius Excavations at a large villa in Civita Guiliana, 700m north-west of Pompeii’s city walls, have uncovered two more victims of the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed many settlements in this region of Italy in AD 79. The…
Frescoed food-shop unearthed at Pompeii
Recent excavations in the Regio V district of Pompeii have unearthed a well-preserved Roman thermopolium – a hot-food shop – in its entirety. The counter, with a painting of a Nereid (a sea nymph) riding on a seahorse was partially…
Stabiae: The pursuit of leisure
Buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, the Roman seaside resort of Stabiae and its opulent villas have long been overshadowed by nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum. As Dalu Jones reports, a new museum puts this ancient playground of the rich in the spotlight.
Grand Designs at Heraculaneum
One of the most lavish dwellings in Roman Herculaneum, the House of the Bicentenary reopened to the public in 2019 after decades of conservation efforts. Francesco Sirano, Director of the Parco Archeologico di Ercolano, and Leslie Rainer from the Getty Conservation Institute tell the story of this magnificent house, its discovery, its decline, and how it has been brought to life once more.
Etruscans: pushing boundaries
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
Victims of Vesuvius
The remains of two individuals who died during the eruption of Vesuvius have been found at a suburban villa near Pompeii.
Painting the past
Joining the gallery’s collections is an 1819 oil-on-paper painting by Achille Etna Michallon (1796-1822) of The Forum at Pompeii.
Bar brawl in Pompeii
Two gladiators wearing helmets with abundant, bristling crests are immortalised in paint in this Roman fresco, recently discovered at Pompeii. On the left, a murmillo stands tall and holds his large shield high in victory, while his vanquished opponent, a…
Appointing Pompeii’s Director
Beyond the island I saw the thin campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which houses the Mouth of Truth, a bucket- list ‘must’ thanks to the incomparable Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953).
Last Supper in Pompeii
The extraordinary levels of preservation at the relatively ordinary Roman city of Pompeii and other sites in the Bay of Naples, where the eruption of Mount Vesuvius devastatingly interrupted the inhabitants as they went about their daily lives, provide remarkable insights into the production, distribution, and conspicuous consumption of food and wine.
Isis in Italy
Dalu Jones follows on the trail of the Ancient Egyptian goddess to Pompeii, Naples and Turin