Ancient Roman temple found in Sarsina, the home of playwright Plautus. More digs at Pompeii have revealed insights into the lives of slaves in the city buried by the Vesuvius eruption of 79AD.
A well-preserved Ancient Roman temple has been found in the northern city where famous early Roman playwright Plautus was born.
Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano announced the discovery on Wednesday. The tripartite temple, with adjacent early medieval structures, is in excellent condition. Excavations uncovered the remains of a large quadrangular structure dating to the 1st century B.C. Cut sandstone blocks, alongside the sandstone slab flooring of the nearby forum, formed the podium on which the ancient temple once stood. The walls are gone, but the bases remain with more than nine feet of height still preserved.
It will be presented at the European Heritage Days scheduled for 23 and 24 September, Sanguiliano said.
“It is an important contribution to our understanding of the past and may have significant implications for historical and archaeological research, which we are boosting with extraordinary results throughout Italy,” said Sangiuliano. He called the find an “archaeological treasure”.
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety.
Lives of slaves in Pompeii revealed
The lives of the slaves in Pompeii have been revealed by a fresh dig just outside the city walls.
The furnishings of a salve’s room have been found in the Roman villa of Civita Giuliana. The villa sits about 600 metres from the walls of ancient Pompeii.
The discoveries are almost 2,000 years old, and made using the technique of casts. Furniture and textiles, as well as the bodies of many more victims of the 79 AD eruption, were covered by the pyroclastic cloud. This then became solid ground while decomposed organic matter left a void in the ground. An imprint of that, when filled with plaster, reveals its original form.
Sangiuliano said, “What has been reconstructed confirms the need to continue scientific research in a place that has been wrested from the looting and illegal trafficking of archaeological goods”.
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