A wardrobe that remained shut for nearly two thousand years, guardian of personal, everyday objects as well as small treasures and memories of a life interrupted suddenly. In Pompeii, a new archaeological discovery returns a rather intimate fragment of daily life before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. This time, in fact, we are not talking about monumental frescoes or other artistic artifacts, but about the objects a woman might have used, kept, and perhaps valued for herself.
The discovery, announced on October 29, 2026 by the Pompeii Archaeological Park, took place in the House of Cornelius Maximus, a dwelling along Via dell’Abbondanza, one of the main streets of the ancient Roman city. Here archaeologists identified the remains of this wooden wardrobe, whose contents today allow us to reconstruct habits and small gestures of a life now distant in time.
What was found in the wardrobe
Inside the Pompeii wardrobe, reconstructible thanks to data gathered during the excavations, archaeologists uncovered a surprising variety of objects. Among them are makeup tools, a tweezer, a tempering tool, a glass balsamarium, and a fragrance burner, probably used to diffuse pleasant scents in the home.
There were also kitchen utensils, bowls and pots in bronze, glass and ceramic, along with a bronze lamp and some lead weights, presumably linked to a commercial activity. But the most exciting find concerns a particular necklace composed of at least 24 small pendants made from various materials, including bone, glass paste, and rock crystal. The objects depict deities, hands, feet, pinecones, and bunches of grapes. They are the so-called crepundia, amulets that in ancient Rome were given to children as symbols of protection. They were often kept into adulthood as precious reminders of childhood.
To make the discovery even more intriguing is a trove of 38 bronze coins, stored in a braided container. Their presence suggests that the house’s inhabitants were not able to recover their belongings before the catastrophe.
The mystery of the missing woman
The discovery took place within the framework of archaeological investigations tied to the restoration project of the adjacent Insula dei Casti Amanti. The House of Cornelius Maximus, whose façade had already been excavated in 1912, thus continues to reveal new details about the life of Pompeii’s residents. The refined wall paintings present in the wardrobe’s room suggest a certain economic well-being, while other findings narrate a daily life that was far from idealized. At the time of the eruption, in fact, some work was underway in the residence, and on a mezzanine, the remains of two small rodents were even found.
What happened to the woman to whom these objects might have belonged? It is the question that makes this discovery particularly evocative. Perhaps she managed to flee without being able to return to recover her memories, or perhaps she perished during the eruption: there are not enough elements to determine this with certainty. As the director of the Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, has stressed, the value of the discovery lies above all in the possibility of reconstructing the human dimension of the past, through personal habits, work, and memories, even after almost two thousand years.
