Pompeii, a cabinet from 79 AD gives back the objects of an interrupted household

At the archaeological site of Pompeii a cabinet has been recovered, left sealed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The discovery took place in a house along via dell’Abbondanza, one of the main thoroughfares of the ancient city, already the subject of excavations and restoration work in recent years.

Inside the cabinet, archaeologists found a set of objects that tell of the daily life of those who lived in that house: cosmetics, coins, work or kitchen utensils and a necklace made up of amulets intended for children. This is not a funerary assemblage nor a votive deposit, but everyday objects, preserved just as they were at the moment of the eruption.

This is precisely the feature that distinguishes the find from many other Pompeian artifacts: the sudden sealing stopped private gestures and habits in time, without the selection or loss that normally accompanies the passage of centuries. A closed cabinet, with a family’s belongings inside, offers a different vantage point compared to the great public buildings or the frescoed domus that have made the site famous: here one sees the minute details of life, not the representation that a house wanted to give of itself.

The necklace with amulets for children, in particular, adds a rare element to the material record on Pompeii: objects linked to childhood are less frequent than adult assemblages, and their presence in a precise domestic context makes it possible to place protective or care practices directed at the youngest within a defined space and moment, that of the eruption.

The recovery is part of the excavation work that the Archaeological Park of Pompeii has been carrying out for years along via dell’Abbondanza, an area that has already yielded, in recent times, dwellings, shops and wall decorations. Each newly excavated room adds a piece to an urban map that, despite decades of study, remains partly still to be reconstructed.

It should be noted that at present the news comes from a single source, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, reported by Il Giornale dell’Arte; no further independent confirmations of the find are available. It is, however, a direct institutional source, which manages the site and communicates its excavations.

The cabinet and its contents will now enter the cataloguing and restoration process that the Park reserves for organic and metal artifacts recovered during excavations, ahead of a possible public exhibition.