After lying buried and lost for nearly 2,000 years, an ornate “Blue Room” has been uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii.
It has been thousands of years since Mount Vesuvius erupted and left Pompeii in ruins, but the ancient site continues to yield new and fascinating discoveries.
According to a press release from Pompeii Archaeological Park, the latest find is an ornate “Blue Room” with cerulean-blue painted walls and carved female figures.
This is “very unusual for Pompeii,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the site, told NBC News, adding that blue “was the most expensive color” because it was difficult to produce.
“They were expensive because they had to be imported from places like Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. If you wanted blue ones you had to pay more. Red, yellow and black were much easier to produce because natural materials like stone and sand were widely available,” he said.
The room, which is approximately 90 square feet in size, was originally excavated during the Bourbon period (1813-1840) but was recently rediscovered and opened to the public for the first time on May 27.
A shrine, a place for keeping sacred things, or a sacristy?
The room was found in Block 10 of Pompeii's IX district, an area that had not been excavated since it was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The walls of the room are decorated with statues of women representing the four seasons, along with depictions of agriculture and sheep farming, the Pompeii Archaeological Park said in a press release.
Watch: Gravitas Looks Back: The Deadliest Earthquakes on Record
He added that the room “has been interpreted as a sanctuary, or sacrament, dedicated to ritual activities and the storage of sacred objects.”
According to the expert, the pigments in this room were particularly important because “the blue color found here is rare in Pompeii's frescoes, which were usually used in more elaborately decorated rooms.”
This unusual blue room was understood to be either a sacralium, or a Roman sanctuary used for ritual activities and the storage of sacred objects.
In the room, archaeologists found a set of bronze objects including 15 transport amphorae (large vases), two jugs and two lamps.
(With input from relevant agencies)
