Stunning artworks have been uncovered in a new excavation at Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried in an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
Archaeologists say the frescos are among the finest to be found in the ruins of the ancient site.
Mythical Greek figures such as Helen of Troy are depicted on the high black walls of a large banqueting hall.
The room’s near-complete mosaic floor incorporates more than a million individual white tiles.
A third of the lost city has still to be cleared of volcanic debris. The current dig, the biggest in a generation, is underlining Pompeii’s position as the world’s premier window on the people and culture of the Roman empire.
Imagine if this was your work on a wall like this being unearthed.
This could have just been another day of hum-drum work for them. But now their legacy has been revealed at an unfathomable time in the future.
So very few people will ever have this and I’m sure nothing I ever accomplish will be remembered or delight so many people upon it’s discovery in the future, should any of it even survive that long.
I’d be willing to bet they’d rather have not been killed by a volcano at all than be remembered.
Without the volcano they’d still be long dead, but their art wouldn’t be internalized.