A GREAT ERUPTION

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2269, 16 February 1929, Page 7

A GREAT ERUPTION

FINDS AT HERCULANEUM. _J, The excavations at Herculaneum which were begun in 1927 in the pre : sence of the King of Italy, have been proceeding regularly ever since, and now, after 18 months, extraoi'dinary results are recorded (writes the Rome correspondent ctf the Daily Telegraph). During the early part of December, a quadrivium, a place where four ways meet—has been discovered, with an entire Samnite house, almost intact, and another house, which leads to one long before discovered, and named the Villa Plato. In front of the Samnite house a palestra has been disclosed, together with a part of an “apoditerium,” or dressing room, and a “frigidarium,” indicating the presence of baths, which extended beneath the Villa Plato.

A characteristic feature of the houses at Herculaneum is that, unlike those at Pompeii, they all have two storeys below the ground floor. Traces of wooden stairs burnt at the time of the eruption are found. The stairs led to cubuli, or sleeping chambers, in the upper flSors, which are well preserved and still have fresco decorations. The chambers evidently contained wooden bedchahbers, which were burnt out, but cinders and cax*bonised remains are still found. No skeletons have yet been discovered, which seems to prove that the inhabitants probably had time to escape to the sea, and perhaps to save themselves in boats.

Nearest to the sea a patrician villa has been found, with a spacious atrium, and women’s chambers. These evidently had wooden frames and glazed windows. The house has been called the Villa of the Three Pine Tress. The courtyard is well preserved, with its mosaics and marble floor and cistern for collecting rain water. The street which led to the sea has been discovered, with remains of patrician houses on each side of it. Among the furniture, bronze objects and household articles have been found, as well as statues of Diana and Apollo and allegorical figures with cornucopia, a statue of Silence and another of an African slave, the latter being about three feet high. There are also many vases, cups, earthware jars, and coloured glass cups, and, finally, a well preserved wooden oil press, five feet high. Nearly all the objects will be left exactly on the spot where they were found.