Metropolitan City of Naples

In 2024, the fields of archaeology and art history were filled with surprises, with discoveries offering unique insights into human history, culture, and art.

Archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a richly decorated but uncommonly small house with finely preserved frescoes of mythological scenes, the site has said.

A black-walled banqueting hall decorated with scenes from Greek mythology, where ancient Romans feasted by candlelight, has been unearthed in Pompeii, the archaeological park said on April 11.

The exceptionally well-preserved frescoes show the god Apollo attempting to seduce Trojan priestess Cassandra, and Helen of Troy meeting Paris, an encounter which would lead to war.

Archaeologists have unearthed a remarkable piece of ancient history in Pompeii, revealing a hidden gem that transports us back to the era of Emperor Augustus. Nestled within the ruins of this legendary Roman city lies a dining hall unlike any other, adorned with captivating frescoes dating back two millennia, Reuters reported.

A black-walled dining hall with 2,000-year-old paintings inspired by the Trojan War has been discovered during excavations at the Roman city of Pompeii, authorities have said.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a "prison bakery" where slaves and blindfolded donkeys were kept locked up underground to grind grain for bread, officials said.

Even the ancient Romans liked their pizza. Archaeologists in Pompeii said on June 27 they had found depicted on an ancient fresco the precursor to the modern-day pizza but without the cheese and tomatoes.

The newly restored remains of an opulent house in Pompeii that likely belonged to two former slaves who became rich through the wine trade offer visitors an exceptional peek at details of domestic life in the doomed Roman city.

Raunchy scenes may redden faces at a new exhibition in Pompeii on art and sexuality in the ancient Roman city, where sculptures and paintings of breasts and buttocks abound.

Archaeologists excavating the city, which was destroyed by the eruption of nearby Vesuvius in 79 A.D., were initially startled to discover erotic images everywhere, from garden statues to ceiling frescos.

In a few horrible hours, Pompeii was turned from a vibrant city into an ash-embalmed wasteland, smothered by a furious volcanic eruption in A.D. 79. Then in this century, the excavated Roman city appeared alarmingly close to a second death, assailed by decades of neglect, mismanagement and scant systematic maintenance of the heavily visited ruins.