MANSIONS OF HERCULANEUM

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1929, Page 2

MANSIONS OF HERCULANEUM

SECRET PROCESS OF PRESERVATION.

(By Sir Pereival Phillips)

NAPLES, Fob. 4

Wlien the public nro admitted to

....e now excavations at Herculaneum they will see for the lirst time Homan villas with their original interior woodwork—charred and fragile, it is true, out still intact.

This is one of the triumphs of Professor Ventimiglia, who is digging out the seaside mansions of the rich from their bed of volcanic mud and lava, a handful at a time. Pimpcii can offer nothing that compares in this respect.

The most important “find” at Her•ulancum, where Professor Ventimiglia is now clearing out the angle within die municipal walls nearest the sea, is a three-storey villa. Its lower rooms nave astonishingly survived the eruption.

Between two of them is a simple undignified screen of wood, divided by columns into three openings. It is now black ns ebony, and so brittle that pieces can be fluked off with a fingernail, yet it is complete The debris in which it is buried has been left in the form of a solid wall enclosing nil but the top of the screen. How to remove the ashes entirely without the screen jollapsjng is a problem that has given Professor Ventimiglia much anxious thought. My guide assured me that he had found the solution, which is known only to himself. In a cell-like bedroom, also on the ground floor of this villa, is the original narrow bed, also of wood, now carbonised. It has a raised low head panel and footpiece flush with the framework, much like a pattern of bedstead in vogue to-day. It is still encased in volcanic matter, save for the top, and will not be fully released until the secret process of preservation can be applied. This villa was evidently occupied by a family of distinction. The living rooms are decorated with marked taste, wile floors are of black and white mosaic in intricate and pleasing designs—all of them perfect—and there ire marble-lined bathrooms with their lead pipes still running beneath the flooring to the mains in the street near-

Tbis villa was excavated from the sireet behind through the servants’ |iiarters. The main front is still buried in the 40-foot cliff which covers the larger and more important street on that side and some of the rooms have yet to Ik* unearthed. HOUSE OF THE SKELETON.

Tliis villa lias no mime. Near it, on the same line of advance, is one known as the House of the Skeleton (so called because of the sole occupant found), which was likewise the residence of a wealthy family. Its floorings are of African- coloured marhles—evidence of luxury rarely to be encountered at Pompeii—and in one room is a very beautiful family shrine, covered with coloured mosaics, let into the wall.

The rooms arc vivid with frescoes. The windows' facing the back street retain their original iron gratings, now heavy with hardened ashes. In one wall is sunk a safe, which contained silver and bronze coins.

A room facing this street was evidently a wine cellar. Half buried in the flooring is an enormous earthen jar, almost of the proportions of a barrel. It had been broken, but not by the disaster that destroyed Herculaneum, for the pieces are held together by lead rivets, and it is whole to-day. All the objects found by Professor Ventimiglia’s men are carefully preserved in a litte temporary museum in the shed where he has his la'oratory. They are being added to almost daily. There is a good deal of undamaged glassware—cups, liowls, jars, and the like; a case of surgical instruments (found in the House of the Skeleton, which suggests the profession of the occupant), carbonised clothing and platters of food—a dish of blackened beans, and newly baked bread. NEW INDUSTRY OF EXPERTS. It is curious to see the roofless villas undergoing reconstruction after so many centuries of ruin. Upper floors are being rebuilt. In one room, facing the blind side which is still imprisoned in the hill, I found two youths perched on a wooden scaffolding, engaged in replacing wall frescoes hit by hit. A highly paid artist, skilled in this particular line of restoration, works all day long over the fragments, large and small, that are brought to him after each day’s excavation. Every piece is carefully numbered. Many of tho rooms were almost completely stripped of their wall paintings and the pieces are so minute that no archaeologist in the past would have troubled with them.

As the hits are fitted together, the reconstituted fresco is divided into oh. long slabs, and these are given a hacking of cement. Then each slab is fastened in its proper position on the wall. The result is wonderfully satisfactory. It. is difficult to see the joints. Some rooms, however, are incompletely restored as all the fragments could not he found.

There are sixty workmen engaged at present on the excavations, and all of them are experts. The digging out of buried towns has created a new industry.