Pompeii

On August 24th 79 CE Mt Vesuvius filled the sky with ash and rock, and the Roman colony of Pompeii became one of Italy’s lost cities. The buildings, art, artefacts, and the people were frozen in a moment described first hand by Pliny the Younger as a universe “plunged into eternal darkness for evermore”.

The city remained buried by volcanic ash for over 1600 years until odd finds in the 16th century led people to begin searching for it. It was not until 1756 that excavations revealed inscriptions recording the name Pompeii, and the rediscovery of the lost city could begin in earnest.

Some of the most precious discoveries made when excavating the volcanic rock were the houses of Pompeii, and the art, artefacts, and people preserved inside. Pompeii is the longest continuously excavated site in the world.

When archaeologists discovered the House of the Tragic Poet in 1824 they found a famous warning. At the door they found a mosaic of a chained pet dog barking at passers-by, with a warning that visitors should enter at their own risk: CAVE CANEM, which means ‘Beware the Dog!’.

This section of a Roman floor mosaic from Syria is a hunting dog which might come from a larger scene, possibly of hunting fields or a scene from the amphitheatre. He is a little more playfull and currently welcomes visitors to the Teece Museum.

The discovery of lost cities like Pompeii in the 18th century was like finding a treasure trove. Artefacts inspired people to own antiquities and recreate the classical styling of the ancient Romans.

By the 19th century interest in the sites changed from the artefacts to the people and in response to the desire for more information the sites became more accessible. As a result, books became richly illustrated accounts of the sites that more accurately documented the artefacts and their find spots.

The plates (illustrations) in these books show how people in the 19th century understood the ancient past. Artists were drawn to the richly decorated Pompeii, because it presented new sources of inspiration for art and architecture and their drawings became the stimuli for the neo-classical style.

In the 19th century (1800s) archaeologists created clear plans of the site. By documenting the excavated areas, objects and their find spots, they were able to prohibit the illicit removal of objects from the site.

These fragments have possibly come from the famous Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii.

The best-known Nile mosaic from the Temple of Fortuna at Praeneste in Italy, was the source of inspiration for a number of mosaics, such as this one from Syria.

Like the Nile scene from the House of the Faun, this Nile mosaic might have decorated the threshold between rooms in a house, and has taken inspiration from the Egyptian wildlife. A rail, or common moorhen, on the left runs towards a fish hiding among the water lilies, as a darter, or snakebird, faces an unidentified fish.