The skeleton of a horse that
probably belonged to a high-ranking Roman military official has
been found at Pompeii.
"It's a very rare find," said Pompeii digs director Massimo
Osanna.
The horse was apparently decked out to ride on an official
mission, perhaps to help citizens fleeing the 79 AD eruption of
Vesuvius that buried the city, he said.
"It was unearthed with an impressive saddle, and very fine
bronze accoutrements," said Osanna.
The find was made in new digs at a villa on the southern
outskirts of the ancient Roman city.
"Now we will go on to discover the villa," Osanna said.
The beautiful animal had just been mounted with a "modern"
wooden and bronze saddle and its head had been decorated with a
shiny harness.
Osanna said it had been suffocated in a red-hot pyroclastic
cloud along with its owner, the commander.
Its head was found bowed and its legs pulled up into its body
in its death spasms.
"It's a very important find because its is particularly
rare," he said.
Its villa has been dubbed The Estate of the Decorated Steed,
Osanna said.
Lying outside Pompeii to the south, next to the via di
Civita Giuliana, "it was a residence of the utmost prestige,
with richly frescoed and furnished rooms, sumptuous terraces
sloping down to give onto the gulfs of Naples and Capri, as well
as an efficient service quarter, with the kitchen garden,
warehouses for oil and wine, and ample lands which had been
thickly cultivated," said Osanna.
Remains of the villa were initially found at the start of the
20th century, Osanna said.
They were discovered by Marquis Onofrio Inperiali, the owner
of the land, who however later ordered his men to re-inter the
finds.
He also found a treasure trove of ornaments and decorations,
some of which were sold to museums but some of which have been
sadly lost in an Allied bombing raid that hit the Antiquarium in
1943, Osanna said.
The villa has been likened in its magnificence to the
celebrated Villa of the Mysteries, one of Pompeii's prime
attractions.
Other, partial digs in the 1950s uncovered a very long sand
imposing portico with splendid frescoes in the third Pompeian
style, Osanna said.
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