Beautiful frescoes, rudimentary doodles, and a pair of skeletons are the latest discoveries out of Pompeii's ongoing excavations.
By
Isaac Schultz
PublishedTuesday 3:55PM

Two sets of human remains, a variety of paintings, and a handful of childrens’ doodles were recently found in Pompeii, the ancient Roman town that was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79.

Pompeii was rediscovered in the 18th century and remains an active archaeological site today. Due to the nature of the city’s destruction—it was totally covered in ash spewed up by Mount Vesuvius—the city was remarkably preserved. Two-thousand-year-old bits of food still sit in the city’s outdoor markets, and the grisly circumstances of its residents’ death are frozen in time, their last postures encased in ash.

The team’s report on the new discoveries was published today in the Pompeii Sites’ e-journal. It covers discoveries made in and around several houses at Pompeii. The human remains—of a woman and a man—were found just in front of the House of the Painters at Work. The individuals were “of advanced age,” according to a Pompeii release, and appeared to try to seek refuge from the eruption in a small corridor. Inside the house, archaeologists found frescoes of mythological figures including griffins, mermaids, centaurs, and the gods Venus (Aphrodite), Apollo, and Bacchus (Dionysus).

In the house of the colonnaded Cenacle (Cenacolo colonnato), excavators found charcoal drawings on the walls of one corridor. Based on their rudimentary look, the team concluded they were probably made by a child. The sketches show two gladiators facing off, an eagle’s head, and a hunting scene.

https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/02c08647be5c85d7b0001cd1b5e8291c.jpg

More:
https://gizmodo.com/pompeii-child-graffiti-gladiator-sketches-discovered-1851504568

Pompeii is an amazing, devastating place.

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2024, 08:32 PM - Edit history (1)

And I disagree with the Italian psychologists.

One of my graduate research areas was examining children's drawings as measures of mental status and intellectual functioning.

1. The Pompeii children did not have to necessarily see the violence, they could have heard about it.
They could be drawing a picture from stories they are told. Fables or other mythical stories.
Which I think could be the case as the children do not seem traumatized.

2. These drawings are not "extremely violent." At least not by American standards.
Disturbed children, PTSD children draw much more violent pictures than these.
Maybe Italy has different type children than we do in the US.

3. The human figures look like they were drawn by someone younger than 6 y/o.
There is no detail on the body and we have these triangle heads.

4. But then we have tables being drawn with more detail and fairly accurate.
The legs are a bit off. So this looks further along than the bodies would suggest.

If the pictures were more clear it would be easier to evaluate.

ETA I think the "tables" are animals. So we see the gladiators attacking animals?
And there is something small in the lower right hand corner, I cannot make it out.
I wonder what it is?

We might be looking at an early version of comic books.
Story telling for children.