Researchers working at Pompeii, the ancient city that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, have revealed a partially restored frescoed ceiling from what is believed to have been a banquet hall, decorated with vivid scenes from Greek mythology.
The reconstructed curved vault was unveiled late Thursday at the close of an international workshop dedicated to new discoveries and ongoing restoration efforts at the Pompeii excavation site, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and ranks among Italy’s most popular tourist destinations.
The archaeological park announced Friday that a new and innovative technique was used to bring the ceiling back together. Researchers believe the ceiling originally belonged to a banquet hall located on the upper floor of a home that was connected to a bakery.
To reconstruct the vault, experts built a curved support framework onto which the recovered fresco fragments were arranged to mirror the ceiling’s original shape. The park noted in a statement that as additional fragments are uncovered and restored, they can be incorporated into the display over time.
After careful analysis, archaeologists concluded that the central theme of the ceiling artwork depicted Dionysus and Ariadne, a pairing that stands as one of the most celebrated stories in all of Greek mythology.
