Archaeologists discover a mysterious 'sorcerer's treasure trove' trunk at Pompeii filled with dolls, skulls and miniature PENISES

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Archaeologists discover a mysterious 'sorcerer's treasure trove' trunk at Pompeii filled with dolls, skulls and miniature PENISES

Archaeologists have uncovered a trunk at Pompeii containing a vast variety of fascinating objects that may have been part of a 'sorcerer's treasure trove'.

The objects include crystals, amber and amethyst stones, buttons made of bones, beetles from the orient, amulets, dolls, bells, fists, a tiny skull - and even miniature penises.

Experts say the objects may have been used in rituals for fertility, seduction, or to seek good omens for a birth or pregnancy, although they stress that this is just a theory.

© Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited The objects include crystals, amber and amethyst stones, buttons made of bones, beetles from the orient, amulets, dolls, bells, fists, a tiny skull (pictured) - and even miniature penises

Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.

Archaeologists regularly uncover new finds at the UNESCO world heritage site that add to our understanding of the events of the disaster and the people who lived nearby.

'There are dozens of good luck charms next to other objects that were attributed with the power of crushing bad luck,' the site's director, Massimo Osanna, told Italian news agency Ansa, of the latest find.

He thinks that it is more likely that the objects belonged to a servant or slave than the owner of the house. 

Indeed, the chest did not include the gold that the wealthy people of Pompeii customarily loved to wear. 

'They could have been necklaces that were worn during rituals rather than being used to look elegant,' he added.

There are dozens of good luck charms next to other objects that were attributed with the power of crushing bad luck,' the site's director, Massimo Osanna, told Italian news agency Ansa

 

Mr Osanna thinks that it is more likely that the objects belonged to a servant or slave than the owner of the house. Indeed, the chest did not include the gold that the all the wealthy people of Pompeii loved to wear.

The objects were found at the Casa del Giardino, the same area where an inscription was uncovered in 2018.

It caused historians to reconsider when they think the Vesuvius eruption that destroyed Pompeii took place, shifting it from August 24 to October 24, 79 AD. 

The writing came from an area in a house that was apparently being renovated just before the nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii under a thick blanket of ash and rock. 

Archeologists found the inscription in a house that was in the process of being renovated at the time of the eruption, so the writing would have probably been covered with plaster shortly.

'That could help explain why, next to rooms with frescoed walls and ceilings, and with cemented floors -- in some cases with tiles or marble slabs -- there were some areas with plastered walls or even without floors, like the atrium and the entrance corridor,' they said at the time.

The August 24 date derives from an account of the blast given by Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption and wrote about it almost 30 years after the event in two letters to his friend, the Roman historian Tacitus.

The Roman author was 17 at the time of the eruption, which he observed from the other side of the Bay of Naples. 

However, previous excavations have uncovered a calcified branch bearing berries that normally only come out in autumn. 

The discovery of some braziers over the years also suggested the disaster did not strike at the height of summer.