He was ready for a battle or who knows, perhaps for a rescue operation, perhaps that terrible day, 79 AD, when a blanket of smoke and lapilli covered and suffocated Pompeii, due to a terrible eruption of Vesuvius. And there he was, "intact", suffocated too. Exceptional discovery in the Archaeological Park of the disappeared town, one of the most visited in the world
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He was ready for a battle or who knows, perhaps for a rescue operation, perhaps that terrible day, 79 AD, when a blanket of smoke and lapilli covered and suffocated Pompeii, following a terrible eruption of Vesuvius. And there he was, "intact", suffocated too. Exceptional discovery in the Archaeological Park of the disappeared town, one of the most visited in the world.
The discovery, part of an excavation operation in the suburban Villa of Civita Giuliana aimed at stopping the illicit activity of grave robbers, brought to light a first thoroughbred horse, then the legs of a second animal and finally the outline of a third equine, covered with military harness. And who knows it's not just the beginning.
The tragic end of the ancient inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii, as well as of other towns in the Vesuvius area, was even worse than has always been believed. In fact, a recent investigation had revealed that the unfortunates had even died with boiling blood and an explosion of the skull, as well as suffocated. And this obviously applies to other animal species as well.
Terrible death and burial under blankets of ash. This allowed the discovery of entire bodies, thanks to the brilliant idea of the director of the excavations Fiorelli in 1893, when he sensed that a plaster cast inside apparently empty cavities could make the contents reappear. And so it was: the casts method he "returned" Pompeii to us at the exact moment of the tragedy.
Technique that is still applied today. In fact, we continue to dig and find moments of life and death. What happened in these days. “The intervention [in the Suburban Villa of Civita Giuliana] had brought to light a series of service areas of a large suburban villa preserved in an exceptional way. Among the rooms the stable of the estate had been identified where the cast of a purebred horse”Writes the Archaeological Park on Facebook.
The operation had begun in March, and in the first phase of excavation a wooden manger, the intact shape of a horse and the legs of a second animal, all found with the mold method, had been identified.
"The current excavation operations, started in July, have fully brought to light this environment and have identified the remaining part of the second horse and a terzo equide with the remains of a rich military-type harness”Reads the announcement again.
In particular, a horse lies on its right side, with its skull folded over its left front leg (perhaps the animal was tied to the manger and had not been able to free itself). The other instead lies on the left side, and under the jaw retains the iron bit. Of another, however, only the legs were found.
The last equid clearly belongs to a "warrior". In fact, during the excavation phases, four finds in conifer wood coated with bronze sheet on the ribs of the rib cage were identified, and the fifth object, also in bronze, was recovered under the belly, near the forelimbs, formed by three hooks with rivets connected by a ring to a disc. Clear elements of armor.
Just last October in the Archaeological Park an evocative 'Enchanted Garden' was found, a sumptuous lararium made up of idyllic landscapes with plants, birds and a sacred shrine painted with the figures of the Lares protectors of the house.
But that was not all, because the world-famous site of Pompeii is a mine of treasures yet to be discovered.
Read also:
- Pompeii, extraordinary red light discovery: the fresco of Leda and the Swan
- Pompeii, the fresco of Adonis wounded in the arms of Aphrodite returns to light
Roberta de carolis
Photo: Pompeii Archaeological Park, via Facebook
