villa de poppea frescoes
Several vivid frescoes have been uncovered during the ongoing excavation of Villa di Poppea, an ancient Roman villa in Oplontis near Naples that was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The newly revealed decorations include an intact peacock fresco and fragments of a mask linked to the comedic character Pappus from the Atellan Farce. The discoveries were made in a room now called the Hall of the Peacock, part of the villa's western section, which is being excavated as part of a conservation project. Other finds include four new rooms, tree root casts showing an ornamental garden layout, and two richly decorated cubicula currently undergoing restoration.
