The carriage’s intricate decorations include metal medallions depicting satyrs, nymphs and cupids
“Time-Traveling Triumph: Remarkably Preserved Ancient Roman Chariot Unveils Insights into Lavish Ceremonial Life. Discovered near Pompeii’s stables, this chariot, speculated to be used in festivals, parades, and weddings, astonishes with its intact state, adorned with ornate decorations of satyrs, nymphs, and cupids. The Archaeological Park of Pompeii hails the find as extraordinary, shedding light on ancient Roman grandeur. The vehicle, miraculously spared by Vesuvius and looters, presents an unparalleled glimpse into a bygone era, leaving archaeologists in awe.”
View of the well-preserved Roman chariot
View of the well-preserved Roman chariot’s iron wheels
The chariot is the first of its kind unearthed in its entirety, reports Colleen Barry for the ᴀssociated Press (AP). Though experts have previously discovered vehicles used for everyday activities like transportation, the recently found example was too ornate for such purposes. Instead, the team speculates that ancient Romans used it for festivals, parades, weddings and other ceremonial events.
“I was astounded,” Eric Poehler, an archaeologist at the University of Mᴀssachusetts Amherst who specializes in the traffic of Pompeii, tells Becky Sullivan of NPR.
“Many of the vehicles I’d written about before … are your standard station wagon or vehicle for taking the kids to soccer. This is a Lamborghini. This is an outright fancy, fancy car.”
Excavations at Civita Giuliana began in 2017 in response to the discovery of illicit activity, including looters’ creation of a more than 250-foot network of tunnels.
“The fight against the looting of archaeological sites, both inside and outside the urban area of ancient Pompeii, is certainly one of the primary objectives,” says Chief Prosecutor of Torre Annunziata Nunzio Fragliᴀsso in a press video, as quoted by Valentina Di Donato and Eoin McSweeney of CNN.
Luckily, notes the AP, the looters’ tunneling just missed the newly discovered cart, “grazing but not damaging
The chariot is adorned with depictions of nymphs, satyrs and cupids.
Detail of chariot decoration
In 2022, excavations at the stable across from the double-level portico where the chariot was stored revealed the well-preserved remains of three horses, including one that was still saddled and harnessed.
Another major find made at Civita Giuliana came to light last November, when researchers discovered the remains of a wealthy man of 30 or 40 and a younger enslaved man, both eerily frozen in their final death throes.
For now, reports CNN, the carriage is undergoing cleaning at the archaeological park’s laboratory. Restoration and reconstruction will follow.
Pyroclastic flows and poisonous fumes killed around 2,000 people in Pompeii and the neighboring city of Herculaneum. Inadvertently preserved by the volcano’s ash and pumice, the city’s ruins have fascinated researchers for hundreds of years, with the first systematic excavations of the site taking place in the mid-18th century.
Since 2022, the Great Pompeii Project, an ongoing conservation initiative funded largely by the European Union, has unearthed a stunning array of treasures, from a snack bar that served snails and fish to a sorceress’ kit. To date, experts have exhumed about two thirds of the 165-acre settlement, according to Reuters.
