POMPEIIAN SOCIETY WOMAN

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 5

POMPEIIAN SOCIETY WOMAN

dies in saying jewels. By Telecraph-Press Assvclation—Copyright Rome, December 22. Excavations, at Pompeii resulted in the dweovery of a petrified woman; yutfa both hands full of jewels. ,She had beea overwhelmed with'ashes I just outside the city. ; - The■,woman wore: uniquo . earnncs, consisting of twenty-one perfect pearls.

Pompeii, in the .first .century of' the Christian era, .was a flourishing .provincial town, under the Soman Empire, m» n "onsiderable- population. In m A.II. a severe earthquake vented its force upon the place, and most of the public buildings had to: be rebuilt, rather than repaired. : The work, of restoring f ll6 city had hardly . been 'completed; wHen 1! t r? ■ ' J? 18 neighbouring mountain, oi \esuvius, the volcanic'forces of'which' had tan slumbering for ages, suddenly buret • into, a violent eruption, . which, while it carried devastation all around the beautiful Bay ■ of _ Naples', buried the two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under dense beds of cinders and ashes 'to a depth of from 18 to 20 feet. .. So completely was the unfortunate city of Pompeii buried that it was not' vntil 1748 that an accidental discovery drew attention to its remains. The work ,of excavating was first undertaken by the Bourbon Kings of France, and has been carried on down to the present day. Owing to the preservation of tho ruins, practically intact by tho superincumbent layer of ashes , and pumice, the remains of Pompeii nfford in many ways the most complete information we possess of Roman material civilisation. , The city' had long been av favourite resort of wealthy Romans, and . there were, in It. many handsome private dwellings. ; i