According to a Saturday announcement from Pompeii Archaeological Park, excavators found the bronze and tin chariot almost completely intact, with wooden remains and the imprint of ropes.
“It is an extraordinary discovery to further our knowledge of the ancient world,” said the park’s outgoing director, Massimo Osanna. “In Pompeii, vehicles used for transportation, such as those from the House of Menander, or the two chariots discovered at Villa Arianna, have been found in the past, but nothing like Civita Giuliana’s chariot.”
The villa, north of Pompeii in Civita Giuliana, had a stable where the remains of three horses were found in 2018, including one that had been harnessed. The wagon was found in a two-story porch that probably overlooked a courtyard not far from the stable.
The Pompeii Archaeological Park described the find as “extraordinary” and that “it adds an extra element to the history of the house”.
The carriage is decorated with bronze blades and red and black wood panels. On the back there are several stories engraved on bronze and pewter medallions. The villa’s ceiling is of deciduous English oak, a material widely used in Roman times, and it was carefully removed to allow for further investigation.
On January 7, excavators first discovered that some of the artifact was emerging from the volcanic material. Weeks later, the entire wagon was revealed, miraculously intact despite the collapse of parts of the room in which it was housed.
The carved bronze and pewter medallions of the chariot, still covered with volcanic material
Luigi Spina / Pompeii Archaeological Park
“Pompeii continues to amaze with all its discoveries, and will continue to do so for many years to come, with 20 hectares still to be excavated,” Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said in a press video in Pompeii Friday. “But above all, it shows that valorisation can take place, attracting tourists from all over the world, while conducting research, education and studies …”
The park believes the chariot had ceremonial uses such as accompanying festivities, parades, and processions. This type of wagon has never been found in Italy before, but instead resembles finds from Thrace, in northern Greece, park officials said.
The ancient city of Pompeii is one of Italy’s top tourist attractions and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Much of the Greco-Roman city is still covered with debris from when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city with ash and pumice stone nearly 2,000 years ago. And experts are still discovering tidbits that provide clues to what life was like when the city functioned.
Looters have stolen from the villa several times in recent years. The Torre Annunziata Public Prosecutor’s Office, officers from the Carabinieri headquarters in Naples for the protection of cultural heritage, and investigators from the Carabinieri group command of Torre Annunziata have been helping to protect the car since January.
The current excavation aims to protect one of the most important villas in the region from looters who have developed a complex system of more than 80 tunnels at a depth of more than 5 meters, with some parts of the site being looted and partially destroyed.
“The fight against looting of archaeological sites, both inside and outside the urban area of ancient Pompeii, is certainly one of the main objectives of the Office,” said Torre Annunziata Nunzio Fragliasso chief prosecutor in a press video Friday in Pompeii.