See Pompeii’s Dazzling Treasures

If you’ve visited any other Roman sites in southern Spain, you’ll probably have seen fish-salting vats, salazones. There are some here, too, dating from the 1st century AD – the river Baetica used to flow nearby so the fish was brought here to be preserved. Popular fish included sardines, bream, mullet, hake and mackerel – tastes haven’t changed much since Roman times.

Museo Arqueologico Antiquarium

Situated in the basement of Metropol Parasol in Plaza Encarnacion, this is a modern, well-presented archaeological museum following a similar format to the Castillo San Jorge (Inquisition Museum), with sections of ruins visible through glass partitions, and underfoot along walkways.

These Roman and Moorish remains, dating from the first century BC to the 12th century AD, were discovered when the area was being excavated to build a car park in 2003. It was decided to incorporate them into the new Metropol Parasol development, with huge mushroom-shaped shades covering a market, restaurants and concert space.

The museum is reached down the stairs from the Plaza – you can already see the ruins though the plate-glass windows to your right before you enter.

There are 11 areas of remains: seven houses with mosaic floors, columns and wells; fish salting vats; and various streets. The best is Casa de la Columna (5th century AD), a large house with pillared patio featuring marble pedestals, surrounded by a wonderful mosaic floor – look out for the laurel wreath (used by emperors to symbolise military victory and glory) and diadem (similar meaning, used by athletes), both popular designs in the latter part of the Roman Empire. You can make out where the triclinium (dining room) was, and its smaller, second patio, the Patio de Oceano.

The symbol of the Antiquarium, the kissing birds, can be seen at the centre of a large mosaic which has been reconstructed on the wall of the museum. The other major mosaic is of Medusa, the god with hair of snakes, laid out on the floor. Look out for the elaborate drinking vessel at the corners of the mosaic floor of Casa de Baco (Bacchus’ house, god of wine).

If you’ve visited any other Roman sites in southern Spain, you’ll probably have seen fish-salting vats, salazones. There are some here, too, dating from the 1st century AD – the river Baetica used to flow nearby so the fish was brought here to be preserved. Popular fish included sardines, bream, mullet, hake and mackerel – tastes haven’t changed much since Roman times.

Information, on video screens, is detailed and clear, with detailed explanations, VR reconstructions and photographs of the original excavation showing how the various remains were found.

It is planned that the Carambolo treasure, a hoard of Phoenician jewellery dating from the sixth century, currently in the Archaeological Museum, will be housed here.

Address:
Plaza de la Encarnación s/n,
41003 Sevilla

Opening Hours:
Tues – Sat: 10:00 – 20:00
Sun: 10:00 – 14:00

Entrance:
2€.
free for Students, Retired, Disabled, and Seville Residents.

See Pompeii’s Dazzling Treasures

The Antiquarium, a museum located on the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, fully reopened this week for the first time in more than 40 years.

Home to some of the razed settlement’s best-preserved artifacts, including protective amulets and plaster casts of Mount Vesuvius’ victims, the museum will host a permanent display narrating Pompeii’s history, reports Hannah McGivern for the Art Newspaper.

As Massimo Osanna, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, tells the Associated Press’ Andrea Rosa, the opening is “a sign of great hope during a very difficult moment” for Italy’s tourism industry, which has shrunk significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Per a statement , the Antiquarium offers “an introduction to the site, … told through the most significant artifacts of the ancient city, from the Samnite era [of the fourth century B.C.] to the tragic eruption of 79 [A.D], with particular attention paid to the city’s inseparable link with Rome.”

Glass-cameo furniture panels depicting Bacchus and Ariadne Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Exhibition halls will feature walls adorned with frescoes and graffiti, household objects like a bronze food-warmer and tableware, and marble and bronze statues, among other archaeological treasures.

“I find particularly touching the last room, the one dedicated to the eruption, and where on display are the objects deformed by the heat of the eruption, the casts of the victims, the casts of the animals,” Osanna tells the AP. “Really, one touches with one’s hand the incredible drama that the 79 A.D. eruption was.”

The museum, dedicated to one of the most well-known disasters in history, has endured its own fair share of destruction. According to Wanted in Rome, the Antiquarium first opened around 1873. During World War II, bombs destroyed an entire room and hundreds of artifacts. Though the museum reopened five years later, in 1948, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake forced it to close once again. Since 2016, the space has opened for several temporary exhibitions, but it is only fully reopening now.

1948 photo of the Antiquarium Archive of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Pompeii is the most-visited archaeological site in the world, notes Italy’s tourism agency, but in recent years, visitors to the razed city haven’t been able to see many some of the significant finds recovered during excavations.

“For security reasons they were held in our storage rooms,” Luana Toniolo, an archaeologist and head of the Antiquarium, tells the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA).

The newly refurbished museum will offer context for artifacts like a rare silver dining set known as the Moregine Treasure and jewels found at the House of the Golden Bracelet, a luxuriously decorated villa where archaeologists discovered frescoes, mosaics and the preserved bodies of numerous victims. The displays will feature chat bots acting as virtual guides to the items, according to a separate statement.

Researchers estimate Pompeii’s population at the time of the eruption at 12,000. Most of these residents escaped the volcano, but around 2,000 people in Pompeii and the neighboring city of Herculaneum succumbed to pyroclastic flows and poisonous fumes.

Fresco found in the House of the Golden Bracelet that depicts Dionysus and Arianna in Naxos Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii Fresco dated to the second half of the first century B.C. Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Pompeii’s extraordinary preservation has made it a subject of interest for researchers for centuries. The first systematic excavation of the site began in 1738, when archaeological science was in its infancy. Work continued in starts and stops. By the 1990s, about two thirds of the city had been excavated. But the site suffered lasting damage from illegal treasure hunters and early archaeological work that was not up to modern standards.

As Osanna told Smithsonian magazine’s Franz Lidz in 2019, excavations led by his predecessor, Amedeo Maiuri, in the mid-20th century were highly productive but left their own puzzles for modern researchers.

“He wanted to excavate everywhere,” Osanna said. “Unfortunately, his era was very poorly documented. It is very difficult to understand if an object came from one house or another. What a pity: His excavations made very important discoveries, but were carried out with inadequate instruments, using inaccurate procedures.”

Small cups containing pigments used to decorate villas’ walls Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii

A roughly $140 million restoration project launched at the site in 2012 has filled in many of the gaps in archaeologists’ knowledge. Specialists in topics from bricklaying to biology have found new clues about the ancient city using tools including CAT scans and drone videography. Among the most important finds from recent years is a charcoal inscription apparently made just before the city’s destruction; the text suggests that the eruption occurred in late October of 79, not in August as historians had long thought.

With the reopening of the Antiquarium, the public will now be able to see some of the remarkable items discovered at the site for themselves.

“Pompeii finally has a museum, and it is a unique one,” Osanna tells ANSA.

Silver table set known as the Moregine Treasure Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii The goddess Venus stands on a quadriga drawn by elephants in this first-century A.D. fresco Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii Cast of Vesuvius victim with baby Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii Floral frieze with gods and cupids created during the mid-second or early first century B.C. Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii Second-century B.C. capital depicting married couples, satyrs and maenads Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii Catapult projectiles dated to the first century B.C. Courtesy of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities / Archaeological Park of Pompeii

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Livia Gershon is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian. She is also a freelance journalist based in New Hampshire. She has written for JSTOR Daily, the Daily Beast, the Boston Globe, HuffPost and Vice, among others.

Antiquarium

“Yet Pompeii, today more than ever, has need of its Antiquarium. The gradual expansion of the excavations, the preciousness and uniqueness of certain discoveries, the duty, the inescapable duty, to defend all that cannot be kept outside from atmospheric agents and dangers, if not from the ill-will of men, and finally the usefulness of presenting materials grouped together and categorised, which are not to be found in the houses …”

Amedeo Maiuri, 1967

The Antiquarium of Pompeii was built by Giuseppe Fiorelli between 1873 and 1874 in the area below the terrace of the Temple of Venus, overlooking Porta Marina. It was the exhibition venue for a selection of finds originating from Pompeii which were representative of the daily life of the ancient city, as well as for casts of the victims of the eruption.

In 1926, it was expanded by Amedeo Maiuri, who as well as adding large maps indicating the updated developments of the excavations since 1748, and enhancing the collection with new finds from the Villa Pisanella of Boscoreale as well as more recent excavations of Via dell’Abbondanza, laid out a route which guided the visitor through the history of Pompeii from its origins until the eruption.

The building was seriously damaged by bombing during the Second World War in September 1943, but thanks to the restoration works under Maiuri, on the 13th June 1948 it reopened to visitors as part of the celebrations of the second centenary of the excavations of Pompeii. Damaged again, this time by the 1980 earthquake, it closed to the public.

In 2016, after thirty six years, it was reopened to the public in the new guise of a visitor centre and museum venue.

On the 25th January 2021, the Antiquarium was inaugurated with a new layout, and has become a museum venue dedicated to the permanent exhibition of finds that show and narrate the story of Pompeii. It has been completely refurbished, taking inspiration from what was the museum concept of Amedeo Maiuri, and by means of the most significant finds, traces the history of Pompeii from the Samnite era (4th century BC) until the tragic eruption of AD 79.

In addition to the most famous artefacts from the immense heritage of Pompeii, such as the frescoes of the House of the Golden Bracelet, the Moregine Silver Treasure and the triclinium of the House of Menander, finds unearthed by the most recent excavations undertaken by the Archaeological Park are also displayed, including fragments of First Style stucco from the fauces of the House of Orion, the amulet treasure from the House with the Garden and the recently produced casts of the victims from the Civita Giuliana villa.

The visit to the Antiquarium is also accompanied by two forms of digital media: a web-bot – a digital assistant able to provide simple and clear service information, and an audio narration which accompanies the visitor from the exhibition route to the discovery of several points of interest within the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.