Sealed Pompeii cupboard reveals cosmetics, coins and childhood amulets from AD 79

A cupboard shut since AD 79

The Parco Archeologico di Pompei has released images of a wooden cupboard that archaeologists reconstructed from excavation data in house IX 11, 7 on Via dell'Abbondanza, one of the busiest streets of the ancient town. The house is attributed to Cornelius Maximus on the basis of inscriptions that are no longer visible. Its facade was uncovered in 1912, and archaeologists have only now examined some of the rooms behind it. The cupboard had not been opened since Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and buried the city under metres of ash, so its contents reflect a household on the eve of the disaster. The objects point to a home that probably belonged to a woman, though the identity of the occupant remains uncertain.

Cosmetics, trade and household objects

Among the finds were tweezers, a tool for mixing cosmetic substances, a glass ointment or perfume bottle and an incense burner that would have scented the house. A bronze lamp lay beside lead weights, probably used in a sales business, which were kept in a small wooden box of which only traces survive. Bronze, glass and ceramic vessels and pots filled the rest of the cupboard. One refined jug, decorated with pine-cone scales, may have carried personal memories as well as serving a daily purpose. The fine fourth-style wall paintings in the room suggest that the family lived comfortably.

A necklace of protective charms

The most striking object is a necklace of at least 24 miniature charms made of faience, bone, glass paste and rock crystal, each with a hole for suspension. The pieces depict the gods Bes and Mercury, along with hands, feet, pine cones and bunches of grapes. Necklaces of this kind, known as crepundia, were given to Roman children as protective amulets, and their sound as they moved helped adults keep track of them. Adults sometimes kept them for life as reminders of childhood. In this case the necklace was kept in a cloth pouch inside the cupboard, according to Mediafax.

Coins and a hurried departure

A small woven container held 38 bronze coins. Archaeologists suggest that the owners had no time to retrieve their money or valuables before the eruption. Fanpage reports that excavations also found renovation work under way in the house at the time of the eruption. Whether the occupants died in the eruption or managed to flee is not known.

What the find shows, according to the site director

Site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel acknowledged the limits of the evidence and said the fragments still bring the household closer to its everyday life.

“We cannot reconstruct with certainty the identity of whoever lived in the house, but these fragments bring us closer to their daily life.”

He also stressed that ordinary objects, not only great works of art, convey the human side of the past.

“Pompeii is not just a place of great works of art. It is also a place where the most ordinary objects restore the human dimension of the past.”

Earlier finds at the site

In 2019, a wooden box from the House of the Garden in Pompeii yielded mirrors, necklace fragments and amulets, which the director at the time called objects from the "female world" of the ancient town. Archaeologists have also found the skeletons of at least two young wood mice in an amphora in the attic of the house.