This is a set of photographs taken about a safe found inside Villa B in the ancient town of Oplontes during the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD.
In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying Pompeii, home to more than 20,000 people, as well as several famous seaside towns such as Herculaneum, Stabia, Oplontis, etc.
Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, Oplontis, due to its proximity to the coast, suffered a tsunami during the eruption.
This led to a particular situation of destruction in Oplontis, on the one hand, pyroclastic flows from the eruption of the volcano from the mountains to the town; On the other hand, a large amount of seawater formed by the tsunami also quickly rushed into the town.
At that time, the people who took refuge in Oplondis eventually died under a mixture of heat waves formed by superheated gases, volcanic ash, and seawater.
Houses and other buildings throughout the town were greatly damaged, because it was more complex than the destructive force suffered by Pompeii.
Oplondis is located about 5 km from Pompeii, in the area of the city of today's Torreannunziata, which was administratively subordinate to Pompeii, but in size equivalent to a medium-sized city during the Roman Empire.
In 1964 and 1991, archaeologists excavated two villas in the Mascatler area, which were named Villa A and Villa B.
In fact, the two villas had been discovered earlier, but due to the difficulty of excavation work and the lack of excavation conditions at that time, the excavation of them dragged on until the 20th century.
In 1834, scholars discovered bathing facilities near Cape Orchino.
Villa A was Popaia Sabina, the second wife of the then Roman Emperor Nero; Villa B belonged to Kiruus Krasius Trutius, a freed slave who achieved certain political and economic success.
Villa B is not luxurious compared to Villa A, it belongs to a two-storey building with an external estate.
Archaeologists learned about the overall structure of the villa during the excavations, with a central courtyard in the middle surrounded by a two-storey colonnade made of Nochera tuff columns.
The sheer size of the villa meant that there were more than seventy rooms in its two-story building, in which a bronze seal bearing the name of Kiruus Claccius Trutius was found.
In one room of the villa, 54 bodies were found, all of whom had died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The rooms of the villa were divided into two parts, one with a large number of exquisite treasures, gold and silver and coins, while the other part had nothing, perhaps the temporary treatment of the villa owners at the time to avoid the disaster, who still held on to the mentality of luck, hoping to avoid the disaster and save their property.
More than 400 amphora finite neck bottles, containers used to store wine, cooking oil and other agricultural products, were also found in the room's pantry.
One of the most important finds is in the colonnade, where archaeologists unearthed a very ornate safe, which was supposed to be a room on the second floor of the villa, but fell to the first floor due to the collapse of the house.
More than 200 coins, a large collection of jewelry and a seal ring were found in the safe.
The safe was made of iron with patterns of gold, silver and gilded bronze, and was engraved with the names of three craftsmen, Pisimos, Pisias and Nicocrates, and the safe was made by a workshop called "Heraclydes".
Opening the safe requires solving a puzzle-like mechanism that pulls several bronze statues in a specific correct order: two dogs, a duck, a female head, and a lion.
Based on this extremely complex password, the combination lock of the safe is also considered to be the oldest secret mechanical lock in existence, and its complexity is almost comparable to the puzzle-like safe used in the 19th century.
Take history as a guide, read history with a feeling, welcome to communicate!
Resources:
Country house of Kiruus Clacius Trutius of Oplontius (Pompeii in the picture).
Excavations over three seasons of Villa Oplondis B, Ivo van der Graff – Michael Thomas – Paul Wilkinson – Jennifer Muslim – John Clark – Naira Montasser – Giovanni Di Maio, from Fast Online Magazine.
