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Article: Reclaimed From Mount Vesuvius; Villa of the Papyri Discovered at Herculaneum
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- February 18, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Only last summer, Italian archeologist Baldessare Conticello
outlined to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington his plans for
finding one of the lost gems of Roman history: the fabled Villa of
the Papyri, buried in A.D. 79 in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that
covered Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Last week he found it, but in an unlikely place: at the bottom of
an abandoned well filled with dead carnations from commercial
greenhouses that today cover much of the Herculaneum site.
"For me it is like discovering El Dorado," the 55-year-old
scholar says, his dark eyes twinkling. "But El Dorado was a dream;
the Villa of the Papyri is a reality."
The ancient villa beside the sea is believed ...