The discovery is the result of the recent archaeological excavations carried out along the north-western side of the Villa of the Mysteries.
They are part of the project to excavate and safeguard the area, which has been re-launched following the demolition of the illegal building that covered it, thanks to an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The people waiting at the time were clients and labourers, rather than art lovers “the graffiti incised on walls by people bored with waiting.”
The recent excavations in the hitherto unexplored part of the Villa of the Mysteries, one of the most famous monuments not just of Pompeii but of the whole ancient world, have brought to light a waiting bench, situated on the public street opposite the main entrance to the villa. However, the people waiting here were probably not visitors eager to admire the famous frescoes with the theme of the Dionysiac mysteries that have made the complex famous since the first excavations in 1909/10; instead, they were clients who had come to ask the master of the house for a favour, as well as labourers and beggars travelling along the road that connected Pompeii with the city now known as Boscoreale.
A Roman master would usually receive his clientes, people of lower social status who had ties of some sort with an eminent figure of local society, during the morning, as part of the ritual known as the salutatio. In exchange for favours, help in legal matters and small or large loans, they ensured their political support for him during the elections of the city’s administration.
“During the long hours spent waiting, you never knew whether the master would receive you that day”, explains Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompei. “Maybe the previous evening he had stayed awake into the early hours and preferred to sleep, or he had something else to do. So some of the people waiting here, using a sharpened object or a piece of charcoal, wrote on the wall to pass the time: it is possible to read a date, but without the year, and a putative name. In a sense, it represents the other side of the marvellous frescoed rooms with views of the bay; who knows whether the people waiting in front of the main door would have ever seen something of the sort in their lives. Today, the sight of thousands of people from all over the world visiting the villa each day is wonderful: what was once a social privilege is now available to everyone, especially on the first Sunday of the month when entry to the site is completely free."
Main Image: Waiting bench at Villa of the Mysteries. Photo: courtesy the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.