Sealed Pompeii cupboard yields one resident's belongings, from amulets to coins

Mixed · 2Archaeologists at Pompeii have reconstructed a cupboard that stayed sealed for almost 2,000 years in a house in the central area of the ancient city, which Mount Vesuvius destroyed in AD 79. 1 2 Right · 1According to Reuters, the site said archaeologists pieced the wooden cupboard together from traces found in a house on Via dell'Abbondanza, one of the busiest streets of ancient Pompeii. 1 Mixed · 2The house's facade was first excavated in 1912, but the rooms behind it are only now being investigated, as part of a wider restoration project according to Reuters. 1 2

Mixed · 2Among the finds was a necklace of miniature objects of bone, glass paste, earthenware and rock crystal, including images of the gods Bes and Mercury; Reuters counts at least 24 pieces, while CBS News, citing the park, says at least 20. 1 2 Mixed · 2Such necklaces are called crepundia: amulets and rattles given to Roman children for protection, which many people kept into adulthood as mementos. 1 2 Mixed · 2Other objects included cosmetics or make-up utensils, tweezers, a small perfume or ointment bottle, an incense burner, and bronze, glass and ceramic vessels and cooking pots. 1 2

Mixed · 2Weights found in a wooden box or chest suggested to researchers that someone in the house was involved in trade or commercial activity. 1 2 Mixed · 2A woven container of plant material held 38 bronze coins, and researchers believe the presence of money and sentimental objects means the owners had no time to retrieve them. 1 2 Mixed · 2The house has tentatively been linked to a man named Cornelius Maximus because of inscriptions found there, though CBS News says those inscriptions are no longer visible. Site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, "We cannot reconstruct with certainty the identity of whoever lived in the house, but these fragments bring us closer to their daily life." 1 2

Mixed · 2Archaeologists also found the skeletons of two young mice in an amphora on a raised storage area. CBS News says the park noted that this casts some doubt on the idea of a certain standard of living suggested by the location and finds, and that such skeletons have turned up elsewhere in Pompeii. 1 2 Left · 1CBS News adds that the park said it is impossible to know the owners' fate: they may have escaped and been unable to return, or died in the disaster, which killed about 15% to 20% of Pompeii's population, or afterwards with no heirs to claim the items. 2