Herculaneum's puzzle
Every Christmas my wife and I purchase a new jigsaw puzzle and on Boxing Day the family gathers around the table and chats happily while we put the edges together and after that disagreement tends to break out as we debate whether the oddly shaped bit of blue someone is holding comes from the sky or the lake. I doubt that we would get anywhere if it were not for the picture on the box - and have never dared to purchase one of those puzzles for enthusiasts which have no picture!
Archaeologists working in Herculaneum's "Villa of the Papyrii" - named after the 1,000 plus carbonised scrolls of Greek literature which were found in its ruins - are facing a similar puzzle as they seek to reconstruct a piece of wooden and ivory furniture recently discovered.
This particular villa, one of the first to be discovered in Herculaneum, was discovered in 1850 when the Swiss engineer Karl Jakob Weber was digging a well and found a magnificent coloured mosaic at the bottom. Rightly suspecting that mosaics don't ordinarily place themselves at the bottom of wells - and as this was in the days before the theory of evolution he had no concept that handfuls of tesserae thrown down the well at random could organise themselves into a picture - he began to explore out from the bottom of the well.
The work of excavating this massive 20,000 m2 villa is still continuing with some 2,500 m2 still completely untouched! Over the years the archaeologists have uncovered not only the amazing library, but also 80 large marble orbronze statues in excellent condition. In addition they have been able to identify the villa's owner as Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar. (Needless to say, he was not the owner at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius!)
The latest discovery is the fragmentary remains of a wood and ivory throne. Herculaneum was overwhelmed by showers of red-hot lapilla which set fire to many of the houses in the city - on our recent tour of Greece and Italy we saw reddened plaster, evidence of the ferocity of the fires - before it was buried beneath a pyroclastic flow of mud and ash. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the roofs of most of the houses collapsed, shattering whatever was beneath them.
Faced with these pieces of ivory and charred wood, the task of the archaeologists would be much harder were it not for two things. The first is that the ivory panels are carved with scenes from the Mystery of Attis. This cult came to Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius and its ceremonies concerned the death and resurrection of Attis. There were ritual processions, the effigy of the god was tied to a stake and buried, and finally he was brought back to life. (I am not sure whether the self-castration which preceded all this is also shown!)
The second guide to reconstructing the throne are the many wall paintings in Herculaneum which show people sitting on similar thrones. So while the legend of the god may help to reconstruct the finely carved ivory panels, it is art itself which is the guide to how the wooden bits fit together.
© Kendall K. Down 2009
