Pompeii and the Common Man Preserved Apartments Discovered Surrounding The Lararium
Contributed
by
Elisabeth
of Pompeii rests a Lararium in the designated Region V where archaeologists have created their infamous plaster casts into a neighboring apartment containing the life of not just another victim to the nightmares of Mount Vesuvius’ wrath, but someone who had a life filled with their memories, their personal items that helped design their life, and more interestingly, the designs of their hopes for their future. “In the Roman Empire there was a significant proportion of the population which fought for their social status and for whom the ‘daily bread’ was anything but taken for granted. It was a social class that was vulnerable during political crises and famines, but also ambitious to climb the social ladder. In the House of the Lararium at Pompeii, the owner was able to embellish the courtyard with the lararium and the basin for the cistern with exceptional paintings, yet evidently funds were insufficient to decorate the five rooms of the house, one of which was used for storage. In the other rooms, two on the upper floor which could be reached by a
mezzanine, discovered
we
have
Sloan
an of objects, some of which are made of precious materials such as bronze and glass, while others were for array everyday use. The wooden furniture, of which it has been possible to make casts, was extremely simple. We do not know who the inhabitants of the house were, but certainly the culture of otium (leisure) which which inspired the wonderful decoration of the courtyard represented for them more a future they dreamed of than a lived reality.” said Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism at the University of Napoli. so inspiring in the observation of this person who possibly constructed their public life of a higher social status to better reflect their desires to make a better name for themselves, as it is a similar dream held by the modern entrepreneur as a common representation of leverage with the public in order to gain a sense of identity and trust for their business, name, and hopefully There is something
It’s easy for us to reflect on major historical events as moments of legitimacy while abstaining from the true nature of those individuals involved. There is a level of separation from how we understand ourselves in the world compared to how we relate to another from a different place, culture, and in this case, a different time. It is for this reason that new discoveries such as the apartments found in the excavations of Pompeii that depict the daily life of regular civilians signify the perfect looking glass into the world of how the common people slept, prepared their meals, decorated their spaces, and practiced their sacred traditions in the privacy of their own homes as so important for historians, archaeologists, and the modern man recognizing our collective past, as well as the significance if our homes today were to experience a similar catastrophe, frozen in time just as we are.
Located at the northern area
Page 105
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