Since its discovery in the late 16th century, excavations of Pompeii’s ruins have continued to shed light on the city’s incredible life before it was buried by volcanic ash in 79 AD. A new discovery has done just that.
Archaeologists have uncovered two nearly life-sized sculptures of a man and a woman in a tomb near one of Pompeii’s main gates. The sculptures were found inside a large funerary monument built into a wall of burial niches in the Porta Sarno necropolis. The tomb is part of a site under ongoing excavation by the Pompeii Archaeological Park in collaboration with the European University of Valencia.
Researchers believe the female figure may have been a local woman of high rank, possibly a priestess of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility.
The statue portrays her as veiled and cloaked, holding what appear to be laurel leaves and a scroll – symbols often linked to religious authority and ritual purity. Carved jewellery, including rings, bracelets, and a crescent-shaped pendant known as a lunula, also strengthens this claim.
The male statue, meanwhile, is depicted wearing a traditional toga draped over the left shoulder. Although the figures stand side by side, experts are unsure whether they represent a married couple. Similar funerary displays sometimes featured family members or unrelated individuals.
“This could be her husband, but it could also be her son. There was no inscription, so we don’t know.” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park. “Sometimes you get two men, or sometimes they come in threes.”
Archaeologists also found the preserved root of a tree that once grew above the tomb at the male figure’s foot: “It was quite a surprise to find it there a few centimetres beneath the ground,” said Zuchtriegel.
The statues are now being restored and will be displayed at an exhibition in Pompeii, scheduled to open on April 16.
Another recent find in Pompeii was a giant fresco representing the Roman god of wine, Dionysus.
By 79, Pompeii had a population of 20,000. The eruption lasted for two days. The first phase was of pumice rain,) lasting about 18 hours, allowing most inhabitants to escape.
Some time in the night or early the next day, pyroclastic flows began near the volcano, consisting of high-speed, dense and extremely hot ash clouds. These knocked down almost all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating the remaining population and altering the landscape, including its coastline. People and buildings were buried in six metres of discharge.
Some 1,150 bodies have been discovered at Pompeii so far, which seems to confirm this theory. Many skeletons were found with jewellery, coins, and silverware.
