Reclining is definitely a common position at mealtimes - the ‘triclinium’ or dining room is so-named for its three couches on which you’d recline and dine. And this skeleton is from such a room. As for the arm… I saw that relaxed pose in a fresco from Stabiae and not sure what it infers.

Apologies, 3rd/4th century AD mosaic.

At ground level like this - trowels. At higher levels they remove it with shovels.

Oh thank you! For some reason I couldn’t think of the word!

It is very much loved, especially by me. Fear not.

Ahhh yes, that passage I know about.

We weren’t stopping as we were on our way somewhere. But a tunnel sounds super cool…

Oh hooray!! Welcome back! In fact we spotted the gleaming mirror-like surface of the sea today from the new restaurant on site.

There are a variety of reasons: it is expensive and in this case the frescoes & mosaics have already been removed so there’s not much left to protect. Reconstructed roofs require existing walls to be built on which isn’t always good for the archaeological remains.

No. Sadly not.

Many!!

I don’t know when this was but I’ve never seen it on site since the 1990s. They use gravel for paths.

They are set into a lime mortar which is wonderfully strong.

Always white. Simple. But still skilfully laid.

Oh my word it’s like a thick broth of tesserae soup! Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this in Pompeii or elsewhere. It looks like a foot massaging haven. So interesting! Thanks.

And given we know some buildings as they still stand today it helps potentially unravel the accuracy of other buildings on the map that we don’t have a lot of info for.

It’s certainly pretty darn great for the historical window that it represents and gives us so much information about Rome in that period. But Rome continued to evolve so it’s of limited use. I adore it. The fact that a Roman chiselled the seating in the Colosseum and we see it today amazes me.

Thank you! I had a wonderful day!