Archeological Finds

FINDS IN NAPLES

Entering the armory’s hall inside the fortress of the “Maschio Angioino” (to the left of palatine chapel) is like going back a thousand years behind the rest of the castle. Here in fact, archaeological excavations have brought to light several layers of the area in Roman times. The glass floor allows you to see the whole room and let you walk over the remains of a swimming pool in a villa of the first century BC, then covered with earth, or other structures of another villa of the imperial era (fifth century ) as it is also interesting the area where dozens of graves were found, some with kits rings and other jewelry, to denote that the area was used as a cemetery in the late Roman era and perhaps until the beginning of the construction of the castle. Moreover, even while working on the construction of Via Acton were found hundreds of skeletons, then placed in a wing of the “Cimitero delle Fontanelle (see the post about this old cemetery). The whole area around Piazza Municipio is one of the places where the physical and historical stratification of Naples is more evident, starting from the ancient greek harbor found after millennia during the first years of work underground, as shown from archaeological sites still open and displaying artifacts from various eras, from Roman times to the Middle Ages.

POMPEIAN RED

RED or YELLOW POMPEIAN?

Who does not know Pompeii, the excavations, the city of the ancient Romans flooded by lava with statues and paintings of bright red, just nicknamed Red of Pompeii?
That typical color “Red Pompeian” that inspired Raffaello (Raphael), who has become famous throughout the world, was not red but YELLOW!
According to a recent Italian CNR study, the red walls of the villas and houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum, analyzed with a spectro-photo-colorimeter, were originally color ochre, and only the action of hot gases during the eruption of 79 BC, could have led to that variation. On the other hand, there are many rooms that, having retained their original color, still are yellow colored. Among the pigments used for painting,  Minium and Cinnabar, the two minerals used in that period to get the red, are lacking while the cheap ocher is the most prevalent pigment. Red or yellow, which is however, we have an exclusive, thanks to the Vesuvius.
And thank goodness that there are two others: the red Ferrari and red Titian.

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