Time capsule of Pompeii: Ancient cupboard provides glimpse into life before Vesuvius erupted

A sealed wooden cupboard from Pompeii, buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, has been uncovered in a house on Via dell'Abbondanza. Inside were a crepundium necklace with 24 tiny objects, tweezers, a perfume bottle, incense burner, bronze coins, and cooking pots. Site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said the finds offer a personal glimpse into daily life.

A sealed wooden cupboard from Pompeii, buried under volcanic ash for nearly 2,000 years, has been uncovered in a house on Via dell'Abbondanza, one of the busiest streets of the ancient city. Inside, archaeologists found a necklace made of at least 24 tiny objects including bone, glass paste, earthenware, and rock crystal, shaped as gods Bes and Mercury, miniature hands, feet, pine cones, and grapes. Such necklaces, called crepundia, were given to Roman children as protective amulets and rattles. Other finds include tweezers, a glass perfume bottle, an incense burner, bronze and ceramic vessels, cooking pots, lead weights in a wooden box suggesting trade activity, and a woven container holding 38 bronze coins. The presence of both money and sentimental objects indicates the owners fled without time to retrieve them. Site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel noted that the fragments bring us closer to the daily life of the unknown resident. The house is tentatively associated with a man named Cornelius Maximus based on inscriptions. Archaeologists also found skeletons of two young mice inside an amphora, showing some urban problems have changed little in 2,000 years.