(ANSA) - POMPEII, JUN 24 - The carapace is almost intact, the head as tactful as the tail and one of the legs.
It is an incredibly preserved earth turtle with its egg never laid the last surprise of Pompeii.
Archaeologists have found it under the floor of a shop in Via dell'Abbondanza, where a research shared between the Eastern University of Naples, the Freie Universitat of Berlin and the University of Oxford is investigating the remains of a luxury house that after the earthquake in 62 AD it was demolished and annexed to the Stabian Baths.
Pompeii, Minister Franceschini applauds "continues to reserve important findings and discoveries, confirming the extraordinary richness of this authentic treasure trove of history and memory that fascinates the whole world".
A discovery, the director of the Gabriel Zuchtriegel Park told ANSA, "which opens a window on the last years of life of the city", those following the earthquake, "in which the whole of Pompeii was transformed into a large construction site".
In this situation, the ecosystem of the town changes with wild animals that find their space in the rooms being worked on.
The tortoise, explains the anthropologist Valeria Amoretti, "had evidently entered the shop, where the floor was of simple beaten earth and a den was dug in a corner in which to lay its egg, which she did not succeed in and probably brought to death ".
Meanwhile, the floors and decorations of the large house replaced by the spa are coming to light.
Mosaic carpets emerge with precious architectural drawings, polychrome marble plinths, fragments of elaborate wall paintings in the second style, the one in vogue in the first century.
a C. And just in a corner of the same shop where the tortoise was found, announced to the Oriental archaeologist Marco Giglio, a votive pit with the burnt wood remains, a small lantern from the 1st century BC and a 'olla that contained offerings to the gods.
"It is proof that this large house was built in the first half of the first century BC, immediately after the transformation of the city into a Roman colony".
The mystery remains as to why such a beautiful and important house was sacrificed for the spa.
