Antiquities Exhibits

I belong to the Herculaneum Society and today received a news item from them that the archaeological site of Herculaneum reopened to the public January 18!  I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the site in 2007 and I hope I'll have a chance to revisit it whenever I can travel again.  So today's featured "Antiquities Alive" virtual exhibit is a collection of my images that I took at Herculaneum during about a three hour walkthrough (the site definitely deserves much more time than that) back in 2007.  I've also included some artifacts from Herculaneum I photographed at Pompeii: The Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington, the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California, and The Louvre in Paris.  Unfortunately, the day I visited Herculaneum the Villa dei Papiri was closed to the public. A Roman mosaic in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, Italy Theater mask in a bath complex in Herculaneum Statue of Heracles or Dionysus with a...

Food and warmed wines could be purchased in taverna or thermopolium, a small pub-like shop selling warmed wines and hot food like hot sausages, bread, cheese, and dates.  Food shops were also available at the baths.  In Latin literature, they would also be called popina, caupona, hospitium or stabulum, but archaeologists call them all thermopolium.  It is thought dried foods were kept in the embedded dolia rather than hot foods.  A dolium in the thermopolium attached to the House of Neptune and Amphitrite in Herculaneum contained the carbonized remains of nuts.   I saw this little mosaic of a Roman tavern scene while browsing the database of French museum collections and thought it quite endearing.  The bar maid looks fully clothed and probably like the bar keeper's wife or daughter.  The database says the mosaic is at the Musee du quai Branly in Paris but I could not find it on their website so I could get additional information about it even usi...