Month: November 2025

Herculaneum cabinet restored for exhibition

Ancient, Museums

A wooden cupboard that survived Vesuvius’ destruction of Herculaneum with all of its contents in place has gone on display at the Antiquarium of the Archaeological Park of Herculaneum after a complex program of stabilization and restoration.

The way the eruption of Vesuvius struck Herculaneum was different than what happened in Pompeii. While Pompeii was being showered in pumice rock, trapping people who sought shelter and causing roofs to come down on them, Herculaneum was unaffected on the first day of the eruption. Then the wind changed and the great pillar of ash and smoke collapsed, unleashing a pyroclastic surge of boiling gases and ash at temperatures exceeding 800F that engulfed the town. Everyone there was killed instantly and wood was carbonized on the spot. Herculaneum was then hit by six floods of volcanic mud, one after the other, burying under 70 feet of sludge. The mud quickly cooled and hardened into solid rock, leaving the entire city under a massive air-tight layer of volcanic tufa. No oxygen could penetrate it, and all that carbonized organic material, from morsels of food to entire villa roofs, was preserved for 2,000 years.

The carbonized cupboard was discovered in a second story apartment next to the luxurious the House of the Bicentenary on the Decumanus Maximus, Herculaneum’s main street, in 1937. Detailed documentation in the excavation diaries record that it was found containing an assortment of tableware — cups, glasses, jugs, pots — in their original arrangement on the shelves. It was recognized at the time as an extraordinary snapshot of daily life in a Roman family of the 1st century.

The superintendent of the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Amedeo Maiuri, placed it on display on the ground floor storefront under the apartment where it was found. This was part of his idea of Herculaneum as a “museum city,” a Roman town resurrected where visitors could step back in time and experience a living Roman antiquity just as it was 2,000 years ago. Maiuri, a supporter of Mussolini and his push to define Fascist Italy as the direct descendant of Imperial Rome, saw this as a means of connecting modern Italians to their “Romanita’,” the Fascist doctrine that identified its brand of nationalism and imperialism with classical Roman culture. Recreating scenes of everyday life at home, in the street, at a shop, etc. conveyed the relatable humanity of the ancient world as history books never could. The carbonized wood furniture played an essential role in these tableaux.

In 1938, archaeologists, historians and Fascist functionaries visited Herculaneum as the culmination of the Convegno Augusteo, a conference of archaeologists assembled on the occasion of the Mostra Augustea della Romanità, the Fascist government’s celebration bimillennium of the birth of Augustus. Herculaneum was also celebrating the 200th anniversary of its first excavation, and the reconstructed House of the Bicentenary, obviously named in honor of the date, was the centerpiece of a celebration. The cupboard and all its tableware were installed in the first floor shopfront under the apartment where it was discovered. Here’s newsreel footage of the event, with Maiuri in his black shirt showing the dignitaries around his “museum city.”

The advent of war stopped excavations and the cupboard was dismantled and stored in a wooden chest for decades. Conservators embarked on a new program of study and restoration in 2022 with the goal of stabilizing it for transport and long-term display.

The relocation, particularly delicate due to the artifact’s fragility, required a complex operation coordinated by restorers, archaeologists, and specialized technicians, who worked for an entire day, ensuring maximum safety. Today, the sideboard is located on the mezzanine level of the Antiquarium, within a display that faithfully reproduces the original layout intended by Maiuri. Thanks to excavation documentation, it was possible to reconstruct and replace the tableware found in 1937 on the sideboard, thus providing a vivid and authentic image of domestic life two thousand years ago.

The find is displayed next to a cradle, in a collection that speaks of intimacy and everyday life, and the lararium found in the same room of apartment V,18, restored in 2021 as part of the 19th edition of Restituzioni di Banca Intesa Sanpaolo. […]

The sideboard’s return to display represents a key step in the valorization of Herculaneum’s heritage, offering a unique opportunity to experience, with emotion and wonder, the daily life of the ancient Herculaneum residents.

Getty acquires Hellenistic rock crystal garden ring

Ancient, Museums, Treasures

The J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired a masterpiece of Hellenistic jewelry: an elaborate gold ring with a miniature gold and enamel garden scene in a box-shaped bezel under a domed rock crystal cover. Created around 150 B.C., the ring is in impeccable condition, and one of the finest surviving examples of late Hellenistic box bezel rings.

The bezel is oval and outlined around the crystal cabochon with beads of gold granulation. The sizes of the bezel are decorated with finely granulated beads in a lozenge design. The bouquet features one large gold flower with granulation beads in the center, filigree outlined petals and more granulation in the broad leaves underneath the blossom, filigree oak leaves and blue-green enamel accents.

Two volutes with flowers in the curled sides form the top of the ring hoop where it connects to the bezel. The hoop is formed of strands of gold wire overlaid with filigree designs shaped like eyes or the knobs of the club of Herakles. The base of the hoop features a small garnet cabochon set on a Herakles knot with ivy leaf-shaped settings on each side that once held gemstones, now lost.

It was first published in 1912 in a catalogue of the ring collection of the late Ernest Guilhou of Paris. It was sold at Sotheby’s in London in 1937, and less than a year later was placed up for action by a Lucerne dealer. It subsequently passed through two different private collections, and was sold at Christie’s in London this July by the descendant of the second collector. The pre-sale estimate was £12,000-18,000 ($15,745-23,618), but the ring’s quality (and the Getty’s deep pockets) drove the bidding way up. The final hammer price was £100,800 ($132,260).

The Getty plans to do the first in-depth study of this exceptional piece.

Despite the ring’s intricate technique, not much study has been done on this specific type of ancient jewelry. This addition to the collection will boost the Museum’s ability to highlight the creative and innovative work of ancient artisans that experimented with precious materials and will also allow Getty to launch a collaborative research initiative into this particular jewelry type. It will be displayed at the Getty Villa alongside similar objects.

Complete Sleeping Cupid statue found in Croatia

Ancient

A rare complete statue of a sleeping Cupid has been unearthed in Pula, Croatia. Made of fine-grained white marble, it dates to the 2nd century A.D. and its exceptional quality and condition make one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Pula.

The sculpture was discovered last week on Castropola Street in the historic center of the city. It was found inside a room of an ancient domus. The room had collapsed, but archaeologists found huge amounts of marble pieces, and the remains of wall and ceiling frescoes decorated in polychrome paint. The room’s purpose is still being studied.

The sculpture found in the collapse layer is 98 cm (38.6 inches) long, 44 cm (17.3 inches) wide and 30 cm (11.8 inches) high at its highest point. It depicts Cupid as a nude winged boy on his side sleeping on a lion skin, his head resting on the lion’s head. This is a reference to the story of Cupid stealing Hercules’ Nemean lion skin, a metaphor for how desire can conquer strength. A small lizard is splayed out next to the sleeping deity, his two left legs touching the edge of the lion skin.

Sleeping Cupid sculptures were popular in Roman art, found in homes as garden ornaments or fountains and on tombs and altars as funerary monuments, particularly for children’s graves. There are about 200 marble sleeping Cupid sculptures similar to this one known. Only about 25 of them include lizards, an animal that symbolizes regeneration and new life.

There is some damage to the piece, likely suffered in antiquity: one of the wings is broken off Cupid’s back and there’s a crack in the oval base that run diagonally from edge near Cupid’s knee clean through to the lion skin’s foot on the other side. It is slightly blackened, a result of an ancient fire at the domus.

Cupid is now being laser cleaned, documented and studied. When conservation is complete and the damage repaired, the statue will go on display as a permanent part of the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula.

Jacobite projectiles at found at Culloden

Modern(ish)

Archaeologists in Scotland have discovered more than 100 projectiles from the Battle of Culloden in a part of the battlefield where no artifacts have ever been found before. The projectiles include lead musket balls, buck shot and cannon shot, including a three-pound ball believed to have been fired from a Jacobite cannon.

The Battle of Culloden was the final clash of the Jacobite uprising of 1745. On April 16th, 1746, the Jacobite army of Bonnie Prince Charlie was routed by the government army under the Duke of Cumberland. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobite soldiers were wounded or killed, and the Jacobite cause died with them. Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France, never to step foot in Scotland again.

A team of archaeologists from the National Trust for Scotland and the University of Glasgow worked with volunteers to investigate an area of the battlefield that was located between the Jacobite and government lines. Previous excavations came up empty-handed, possibly due to forestation works in the 19th century and later tree clearance. This time, the team employed a variety of techniques: metal detector scanning, digging trial trenches and test pits. The multi-pronged approach was successful beyond expectations, shedding light on one of the most significant clashes in the battle.

Professor Tony Pollard said: ’We’ve only had time to make a rapid assessment of our results, but musket balls fired by Jacobite and government troops, including pistol balls fired by government dragoons, likely relate to one of the last actions in the battle. This fight took place between the initial battle lines, at a location where boggy ground slowed the Highland charge, and this, in combination with heavy fire from Cumberland’s line, helped to seal the fate of the Jacobite cause.

’As the Jacobites retreated, a battalion of Irish troops in French service, fighting with the Jacobites, made a brave stand against hundreds of mounted men from Cobham’s Dragoons and possibly Kingston’s Horse, advancing from the right of Cumberland’s line. The job of these horsemen was to cut down the disordered Jacobites, and we have recovered some of the shot fired from their heavy pistols. The Irish troops, numbering about 150 men, under their commander Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stapleton, blocked this advance and, according to an account by Adjutant General John O’Sullivan, one of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s senior officers, fired volleys into the approaching cavalry. The red-coated Irish Picquets then found cover behind the walls of Culloden Parks. Still, their surrender, after suffering heavy casualties, with Stapleton among the dead, was the only alternative to total annihilation. Being regular troops in French service, they were treated as prisoners of war rather than rebels, but nonetheless, they suffered the privations of confinement on a prison hulk in the Thames before being repatriated to France in early 1747.

’This valiant action helped thousands of Jacobites get away from the field, but it gets only brief mentions in most of the history books. A more detailed analysis of the artefacts and their distribution pattern will be required before we can make a definitive statement, but at present there are no obvious alternative interpretations.’

Unique medieval helmet found in Georgia

Medieval

A unique medieval helmet and chain mail shirt have been discovered in the historic fortress of Rustavi, central Georgia. The helmet and mail shirt date to the 9th or 10th centuries, and the helmet is the only one from this period ever discovered in Transcaucasia.

Located about 15 miles southeast of Tbilisi, Rustavi was one of the earliest cities of the Georgian kingdom of Iveria, aka Caucasian Iberia. The fortress was built on a hill overlooking the Kura River starting in the 5th century. It was rebuilt in three phases through the Middle Ages, and traces of fire and battle including charred wood remains have been found.

The helmet and chainmail shirt were discovered close to each other in Room VI of the fortress. Numerous glazed pottery pots, jugs, pitchers and bowls were also found in the intensive excavation of Room VI.

Experts suggest the armour may have belonged to an elite soldier or commander stationed at Rustavi. The iron helmet, featuring a detachable muzzle plate, reflects advanced craftsmanship and design possibly influenced by Byzantine or Persian models. The chain-mail shirt, composed of thousands of interlinked iron rings, is in exceptional condition considering the area’s humid soil.

The discovery also helps fill a major gap in the archaeological record. Very few examples of early medieval armour survive anywhere in the Caucasus, and none have been documented with this level of completeness. The find provides direct material evidence of how warfare technology evolved during the formative centuries of Georgia’s feudal states — an era marked by Arab, Byzantine, and local interactions.

Archaeologists are now conducting metallurgical analysis to determine the alloy composition and manufacturing techniques. Early observations indicate the items may have been locally produced, showing that Georgian armourers of the time possessed high technical skills comparable to those of their regional counterparts.

The excavation of the fortress began in July, part of the largest archaeological project in the history of the city that also opens the fieldwork to any 12th grade students who wish to participate in the exploration of Rustavi’s past. More than 100 young people volunteered to join the archaeological investigation this year, and more than 500 have participated overall. Major discoveries have been made, including Middle Bronze Age tombs unearthed in 2020 that were found to date to the 18th-19th centuries B.C. which proved that Rustavi was settled at least four or five centuries earlier than previously known.

The city plans to make the fortress an open-air museum where visitors can view the excavations in progress and learn about the site’s history and prehistory. The armour and helmet are currently undergoing conservation. When they are clean and stable, they will go on display at the Rustavi Museum.