A mosaic montage part 3 - Lullingstone Roman villa

The third and final instalment of Roman mosaic related goodness from my recent trip down south takes us to Lullingstone villa, just south east of London.  You can catch up with my previous looks at Fishbourne Palace and Bignor villa by following these links.

Lullingstone is an English Heritage site, discovered during excavations beginning in 1949, and located down one of the longest, windiest and most poorly signposted roads I have ever encountered.  Still, good archaeology is rarely located in the most convenient locations.

The villa is contained within a large building, just as Fishbourne and Bignor are.  While this is undoubtedly a vital element of the site conservation, I have to admit that it does serve to detach the site from its landscape somewhat and serves to disorientate the visitor as to which direction they are facing, and how the original structures relate to each other.  On the flip side, however, it does allow for museum displays to be positioned around the edges of the actual remains and related to them, and for a wonderful high level view of the remains to be obtained.  Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Lullingstone is a very compact villa, with a tightly packed suite of rooms clustered together, and which developed from its origins between c.AD100-150 to its heyday in the years following AD360.  One thing I have to say about the images below is that its amazing how overpowering the green lighting on the remains appears.  I don't remember it looking that strong on site!

The displays surrounding the physical remains are well set out in terms of explaining the development of the villa, its wider context and displaying a nice variety of finds from the site.  There are also a very neat and colourful selection of cartoons to accompany the displays.  Although aimed at kids, I confessed I enjoyed looking at them too!

I haven't mentioned mosaics yet, of course, and truth be told, Lullingstone only has one surviving pavement.  Thankfully, its a fantastic one!  Located in a central position in the house, the pavement covers both a reception room and an apsidal dining room.  The element of the mosaic in the reception room features a large and slightly random assemblage of geometric borders and panels, but centres around a square with the four seasons and a feature image of the hero Bellerophon.  In the image, Bellerophon is riding Pegasus, and is spearing a fire breathing Chimaera.

The dining room apse contains the most famous element of the pavement - the image of Europa being abducted by Jupiter in the guise of a bull.  This element of the pavement is also a fine example of a mosaic clearly designed to sit in the centre of a triclinium - the classical Roman dining furniture.

In the myth, Europa was a Phoenician woman with whom Jupiter became infatuated.  To ensnare her, he (rather bizarrely) turned himself into a white bull and hid with her father's herd.  When tending the cows she noticed the fine, white bull, and as she stroked it, it picked her up on its back and whisked her away to Crete.  There Jupiter revealed his true identity and Europa became Queen of Crete.  Honestly, what's the point of being the universe's most powerful deity if you have to go to such lengths just to get some mortal girl?  The mosaic shows the pair as they are flying across the ocean (yep, it was a flying bull), its hooves dipping into the water, and the near naked Europa clearly enjoying the ride and the sea wind whistling through her hair.

The scene is enhanced by the Latin script above it, which reads:

'INVIDA SI TA[VRI] VIDISSET IVNO NATATVS

IVSTIVS AEOLIAS ISSET ADVSQVE DOMOS'

This translates as 'If jealous Juno had seen the swimming of the bull more justly would she had gone to the halls of Aeolus'.  This is an allusion to Virgil's Aeneid, when Juno went to Aeolus (the ruler of the winds) to get him to hinder Aeneas on his travels.  The reference here is that she should have been more concerned with her husband's ludicrous schemes to abduct mortal women!  Its a lovely classical reference, and clearly designed to be a talking point for the well-educated diners reclining around the pavement.

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Nemi at Nottingham Castle

This weekend, I finally managed to make the short trip across to Nottingham to see 'The Treasure of Nemi' exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum before it closes.  Its scary just how quickly exhibitions fly past, and before you know it they're in their final week and you still haven't been!

The subject material is wonderful, and a great idea for an exhibition.  The sanctuary of the goddess Diana at Lake Nemi, southeast of Rome, is a very famous archaeological site and was a renowned shrine through its long life between the 5th Century BC and the 2nd Century AD.

Ovid, in his 'Fasti' (his partially surviving tour through the religious festivals of the Roman calendar), mentions Nemi for the month of March:

"Teach me, nymph, servant of Diana's grove and pool;

Come, nymph, Numa's wife, witness your deeds.

In Aricia's valley, circled by a shady wood 

Is a lake, hallowed by an ancient cult.

Here Hippolytus hides, unfleshed by horses' reins;

Hence no horses may enter the grove.

The long hedgerows are covered with hanging threads;

Many placards give thanks to the goddess.

Often a woman is granted her prayer, wreathes her brow

And bears shimmering torches from the city.

The grove is ruled by runaways with strong hands and feet,

Who later perish by their own example.

A pebbly rivulet spills down with shifting sounds:

I have often drunk from there in small sips.

Egeria supplies the water, the Camenae's

Darling goddess, Numa's wife and council.

At first the Quirites were too eager for war;

Numa tamed them with law and fear of gods.

Laws were made to cabin the power of the strong,
And ancient rites were observed exactly.
Barbarism is peeled off, justice surpasses arms,
And civil violence becomes shameful.
An altar's sight induces recent brutes to offer
Wine and salted spelt on glowing hearths."

One of the most fascinating (and downright mad) elements of the Nemi site is the priest that presided over it.  Known as the 'Rex Nemorensis' ('King of the Grove'), the priest was a runaway slave who held his position until another runaway slave took a bough from a tree at the site and killed him!  Suffice it to say, this was not normal procedure for Roman priesthood succession planning!

The site was excavated in 1885 by Lord Savile, then British Minister in Rome.  He had an agreement with Prince Orsini, the landowner, that they would share the finds 50-50.  Thankfully, though Orsini let his collection be scattered, Savile donated his collection to Nottingham Castle on his return to England.

So, what was the exhibition like? Overall, it has to be said that the quality of the collection makes it a success, though there are certain little things that jarred me while I was looking round, and I need to get them off my chest first before telling you what I really liked!

Firstly, I actually had trouble finding the exhibition within the museum and found myself wandering a bit randomly through various galleries trying to find generic 'temporary exhibition' signage. It would have been nice to have had some bespoke signage throughout the museum to help locate the galleries and promote the existence of the exhibition.  When I eventually found the galleries, I entered by one of a number of entrances, but not one that provided me with an introduction, leaving me wandering through the experience effectively backwards, which wasn't critical but was a little frustrating.

The exhibition was neat and tidy but felt a little staid and old fashioned, an opinion also shared by the two people I visited with.  For example the rooms seemed to me to be begging for some large scale vinyls of the beautiful lake setting to transport visitors into the environment and inject some vibrancy and colour.  A sense of place was lacking from the interpretation in general, as although certain panels did discuss the setting of the shrine perfectly adequately, it wasn't particularly brought to life.  This seemed a shame when the location of the shrine is one of its most appealing and significant aspects.

Image from www.romanroadwalks.com

Linked to this previous comment, and perhaps reflecting the budgeting realities of modern museums, was the interpretation for the display cases of votive offerings.  I really loved how the offerings had been arranged in chronological groupings to demonstrate the changing nature of the offerings over time, and the displays themselves were attractive and eye-catching, but why oh why did they decide to use laminated sheets of A4 for the interpretation?  I don't have a problem with using a numbering system to avoid cluttering an attractive and object-rich display with text-heavy labels, but to use laminated sheets (tearing apart at the edges) seems cheap to me and isn't worthy of the quality of the objects.  This was compounded by the fact that there was only one set of interpretation for each display case, and the text often ran over multiple sheets, sometimes cutting halfway through a single object's interpretation.  I'm afraid it lets down the quality of the display immensely.  Oh, and some of the sheets had even become mixed up between display cases as they weren't graphically distinguished in any way.  Grrr...

With those gripes out of the way, let me get on with telling you what I liked, because overall, as I said at the outset, the quality of the material is wonderful and the interpretation is very good.  Nottingham Castle is extremely fortunate to have such a collection from this wonderful site and its great to see it being placed in the spotlight.

I always find votive objects fascinating, and the collection on show is second to none.  The fact that there are so many from the same site makes them especially interesting, and means that changes in fashions can be traced through time.  A whole range of anatomical models (hands, feet, pregnant women etc); full and partial statuettes of animals, deities (namely Diana and Minerva); busts of unidentified people in both bronze and terracotta and miniature versions of various pots and jars are all on display, and I spent a long time peering into the neat displays looking at the tiny details - absolutely wonderful!

The use of 'broken' columns as display cases in the centre of one room was a neat touch, as were the mirrors at the bottom of them, no doubt a device designed to carry the idea of the mirror-like qualities of the lake, sometimes known as 'speculum Dianae' - the mirror of Diana.  It was also nice to see a variety of architectural material on wall-mounted open display.  The mounting was well done and the arrangement attractive.

The 'Fundilia Room' was arranged to represent a single room at the shrine, built around 50BC and partially excavated by Savile.  The objects in this room, including images of objects now in Copenhagen, provide the personal touch to the displays, containing as they do the names and faces of people involved with patronising and worshipping at the shrine.  This includes the fabulous herm of Fundilia Rufa, who has become the 'face' of the exhibition, and the character through which the social media was focussed.  The quality of the objects is wonderful and the arrangement a great success.  I confess I got very much caught up moving from object to object and revealing the details of people who had had such personal involvement in the site.  The contemporary video presentation fitted the content well, and the large tree for people to add their own votive wishes was very sweet.

At this point, I should certainly make mention of the website and blog which were created around the exhibition.  The website provides a background to the site and finds and the excellent blog has articles from museum staff and wider university experts which explore a variety of issues about the shrine, the archaeological questions it raises and the project to digitise and 3D scan the collections.  I hope the blog in particular remains live for a long time to come, as the article archive they have created is first rate, and has some stimulating content.  Ironically, the online content provides some of the imagery and sense of place that I felt was lacking in the exhibition itself.  You should definitely check them out!

As a final touch, I very much liked that the gardens which surround the museum building had had one of the flowerbeds specially turned into a representation of one of the terracotta male heads from the site.  Oh to be able to go back in time and tell the original depositor what his offering would one day be turned into!

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Tumbling into Tumblr - Religio Romana

I confess it - I'm a sucker for trying out different forms of social media. I've been toying for a while with creating a Tumblr account, and now I have!

I very much like the idea of having a medium that is halfway between a full blog (i.e. what you're reading now) and twitter, and one that is very visual to boot.  I'm focussing the Tumblr entirely on a particular interest of mine - Roman religious beliefs and cult practices, both in Britain and across the Empire.  

I see the new Tumblr as a great way to flag interesting objects I come across in museums, sites I visit and quotes I read in ancient and modern texts without the 140 character restrictions of twitter, or feeling that I have to write a full piece on them to make them worthy of a full blog post here.  It also means I can keep the variety of content I like to have on this blog.  Of course, there will still be lots of Roman archaeology content appearing here too!

The Tumblr is called 'Religio Romana', and the full URL is religioromana.tumblr.com, so head across there are check it out as it develops.

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Rutland water and the missing Roman shrine

I posted a little piece a few days ago (here) about the media coverage of a very interesting Roman shrine discovery on the banks of Rutland Water.  I said at the end of that piece that I'd be going to visit the Rutland Water visitor centre to see some finds from the site, as the BBC report said that they were on display there, alongside a little outdoor reconstruction of the shrine building itself.  So, did I go?  Yes I did.  Did I see the aforementioned finds and reconstruction?  Err, no...

The visitor centre does have a nice little display on local archaeology, including an Anglo Saxon skeleton discovered during its construction, and does have some printed material on the shrine discovery, but has nothing at all from the excavation.  In fact, the idea that they should seemed rather a surprise to the staff member on duty.  Curioser and curioser...

Despite not seeing any of the actual finds (which I confess I was disappointed about), I did find out a little more about the site - namely that despite the recent press coverage, it was actually excavated way back in 2008.  The male skeleton, of which much play was made by the media and which I suggested would be extremely interesting if Roman in origin, is actually Anglo Saxon, dating to the 5th or 6th Centuries.  The Historic Environment Record entry for the site can be viewed here.

I was able to find out a little more about the finds from the site though, such as the fact that an interesting little curse tablet was discovered, and that the bronze figurine fragment that was vaguely referenced in the media (but which I wrote would be key to identifying the deity being worshiped) turns out to be part of a Corinthian helmet, making it likely that Minerva, or possibly Mars, was the presiding deity.

The trip was far from wasted though, as a little stroll along the banks of Rutland Water in the sunshine is hardly a chore.

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Roman shrine discovered at Rutland Water

I've just been reading the very interesting news that a new Roman shrine site has been discovered at Rutland Water, just to the south of Lincolnshire and so very close to my own patch.  Having an interest in local Romano-British religious practices, its great news to hear that a new site has been unearthed that will help us to better understand the nature of Romano-British belief in the region.

The site was uncovered by Northamptonshire Archaeology and consists of a circular stone building, 10.5m wide, related to an Iron Age farmstead.  The suggestion is that the shrine dates to between around AD100 and AD300, though the exact relationship between the farmstead and the shrine isn't clear from the reports I've seen so far.  I look forward to reading the full report to see what overlap and connection there might be between the two, and with other Roman activity in the area.

The format of the shrine building is also unclear.  A typical Romano-British temple site might be expected to have a central building - a cella - with a covered walkway around it.  This would then have a further surrounding courtyard - a temenos - all enclosed by a boundary wall or ditch.  Worshipers would make their offerings within the temenos, but would not be allowed to enter the cella, where the presiding deity's cult statue would reside.  At present, it is not clear what features, if any, surrounded this simple stone building, and where the finds were located in relation to it and other landscape features such as ditches or pits.

Finds from the site have included red and white painted plaster from the building's walls, more than 200 Roman coins, pottery jars, part of a small bronze figurine and deposits of lamb and cattle bones.  These finds are all representative of the types of objects and remains associated with temple sites and the ritual offering of animals.  It will be interesting to see if the statue fragment can be associated with any specific deity, as it may be the only clue to determining which divinity, classical Roman or local British / Celtic, was being honoured.

Perhaps the single most unusual aspect of the site was the discovery of the skeleton of a male of about 30 years of age, positioned in the centre of the shrine.  The reports I've seen lead to the assumption that the burial is contemporary with the life of the shrine.  Analysis of the skeleton, though it looks from the photographs to be in fairly poor condition, will be fascinating to see if a cause of death can be determined, or if any injuries are present.  The use of human sacrifice (willing or otherwise) is a distinctly Celtic practice rather than a Roman one, so if this burial relates to the 2nd or 3rd Centuries AD it could be a very interesting discovery indeed.

The finds from the excavation and a reconstruction of the building are currently on display at the Rutland Water Visitor Centre.  No prizes for guessing where I'm going this weekend!

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Of moles and car parks - some recent Roman discoveries

There have been two interesting bits of news about Roman Britain in recent days.  The first involves the archaeologists at one of my old institutions, the University of Leicester.  Fresh from digging up Richard III, they've been investigating another of the city's fine car parks, this time turning up an interesting Roman cemetery.

If this habit of finding good archaeology under Leicester car parks continues, I think they might have to announce a new branch of archaeology - 'car parkaeology'!

The excavation was at a site outside of the Roman town of Leicester ('Ratae Corieltavorum') and discovered a hitherto unknown cemetery site.  While this is interesting enough, its not spectacular, as new Roman burial sites turn up fairly regularly.  The reason this one is particularly significant is that it seems to reflect a mixture of pagan and early Christian burial practices.  The burials date to around AD300, so a handful of years before the Emperor Constantine officially declared Christianity the official religion of the empire.  Even so it is debatable as to the extent that the new religion took hold in provinces such as Britain.  Conversely, the belief was hardly new at the time of Constantine and Christians almost certainly existed in Britain before then, though how openly they displayed their religion is questionable.

Image copyright University of Leicester

The main piece of evidence is a finger ring, made of jet, which was found with one of the 13 inhumation burials.  On the bezel is inscribed a design with a central vertical line and a large X through it, with the sections thus formed cross hatched.  It has been suggested that this reflects the letters I and X, and therefore a monogram of the Greek characters Iota and Chi, and reflecting Christ's initials.  This of course is very similar to the, perhaps better known, 'Chi Rho' symbol which consists of the first two letters of 'Christos' in Greek, seen below on the Lincolnshire ‘Walesby tank’.

Although there's been a lot of media coverage, you can see the University's own page on the excavation here.



The second item of Roman news has been in the form of archaeologist-moles excavating their own little pieces of the Roman fort at Epiacum in Cumbria.  I confess I've never been, but the site is high on my list to visit as it looks stunning, and deserves to be much better known - especially for those wonderfully preserved defenses.  The site's website can be found here, and I strongly suggest you have a look, and try and make your way there the next time you're in Hadrian's Wall country.

The site is a scheduled ancient monument, but those little velvety fellows are famous for their disregard of heritage legislation and tend to follow a more Victorian ethic of digging into every bit of archaeology they can find.  This has led to a project to survey their work and record the finds they unearth.  So far, sherds of nicely dateable of pottery (including Samian ware), beads and even a dolphin brooch have been unearthed.

I look forward to hearing more about their work in the future.  I'm not sure how well moles draw sections though...

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Waterlogged wood and phallic pendants - new discoveries in Roman London

I have been reading with great interest about the new discoveries in London - the 'Pompeii of the North' as some newspapers would have it.  You can see the major news coverage from the BBC and Guardian through these links, but basically, excavations on the site of what will be Bloomberg's new HQ have been producing some rather amazing finds.

Because the excavation is on the site of the River Walbrook (now no longer in existence), the deposits are waterlogged, providing an amazing level of preservation of organic material such as fences, shoes and over 100 fragments of writing tablets.  There has even been the discovery of a wooden door.

The site looks as if will prove to be of immense interest to those of us with an interest in Romano-British religious belief and cult practices.  The name 'Walbrook' is already well known as the site of the London Mithraeum (an underground 'temple' used by members of the cult to the Persian deity Mithras).  The original site was discovered in 1954 during post war building work, and these new excavations have uncovered a new section of the structure.  Hopefully, the finds will shed even more light on this already fascinating and important site.

Also of interest is the fact that the site has uncovered the largest collection to date of a type of pendants known as 'penis and fist pendants'.  These pendants are known mainly in bone, but are also occasionally found in bronze, and have a penis at one end and a hand at the other, making a gesture known as 'mano fico', or 'fig hand'.  This is when the thumb is pushed between the index and middle fingers, and also has rather sexual connotations.  Rather than being sexual in nature, however, both of these symbols were used as good luck symbols in the Roman period, and the pendants were believed to have been worn to ward off bad fortune (or the 'evil eye').  These particular pendants are associated with the Roman military, so it will be very interesting to see exactly what context this large collection comes from.  The picture below shows one of these pendants, found in Lincoln.

The plan is apparently to display the finds in the new complex when it opens in 2016, and I for one can't wait to see them.  In the meantime, I wish the Museum of London archaeologists the best of luck with the mammoth post-excavation process they now have to go through.  I'm sure the quality of the finds will make it a fascinating one, and I'm equally sure there will be many more revelations as the finds and environmental data are studied in more detail - particularly as the writing tables are deciphered.

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Venta Icenorum - Roman Caistor by Norwich

Sometimes you go and attend a talk and its very nice.  Interesting.  Relaxing even.  But other times you attend a talk and come home buzzing with new ideas and desperate to re-read every book you own on the subject to immerse yourself in it.  I'm pleased to say that the talk I attended tonight was definitely in the latter camp.

It was the monthly lecture for the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology (which if you're based in Lincolnshire and interested in history or archaeology there's really no excuse for not being a member of).  The speaker was Dr Will Bowden of the University of Nottingham, and the subject that he spoke so entertainingly and eloquently about was the Caistor Roman Project.

Now, there are one or two Caistors to choose from in Britain, but this one is the Caistor in Norfolk, just south of Norwich - Venta Icenorum to the Romans.  The site is a greenfield, owned by the Norfolk Archaeological Trust, and there has been an ongoing archaeological field school there since 2005.

The name 'Venta Icenorum' translates as 'the market of the Iceni'.  I'm sure everyone know the Iceni as the tribe of Boudica and the famous revolt of AD60, but this famous connection has actually hampered the study of this important town as previous archaeologists have been desperate to link its development to the aftermath of the uprising, in the AD70s.  One of the main research goals of Dr Bowden's project has been to understand the development of the town purely from the archaeological evidence, not from famous stories.  It now appears that the main early development was slightly later, at the very end of the 1st Century and into the 2nd.  Just as interesting is the end of the Roman period, as there is evidence that the Forum underwent a refurbishment in the 4th Century.  Such investment is very rarely found, and perhaps speaks of the continued status of the town in the final years of Roman governance.

Another element of the story I found particularly fascinating is the question of just how built-up Roman towns actually were.  The traditional view is that, within their imposing walls, sizeable Roman towns were densely packed with brick and tiled buildings, interspersed with fora, temples, basilicae and colonnades.  While these classical edifices undoubtedly existed, it is becoming more and more obvious that the towns were far more hotchpotch than that, with timber and brick buildings growing up side by side, and growth happening organically rather than through large, planned urban developments.  The existence of green spaces such as orchards or even brownfield sites within the walls are harder to prove archaeologically, but shouldn't be discounted.

A few finds from the site are worthy of mention.  Firstly, on the religious front, a defixio was found in the area in 1981.  A defixio is a lead tablet inscribed with a curse - asking a deity to punish another person for wronging them.  This curse was a plea to Neptune, asking that the thief of a sizeable haul - a wreath, bracelets, a cap, a mirror, a head-dress, a pair of leggings and ten pewter vessels - be punished.  Neptune was very generously offered the leggings if he assisted...

The second find is of a palaeolithic flint handaxe.  Rather than being evidence of ancient occupation of the site, however, this was incorporated into the Forum building and seems to reflect the belief that prehistoric axes were actually the remains of lightning bolts ('fulgur' in Latin).  By having one incorporated into the building, perhaps lightning wouldn't strike twice!

This wonderful project is up for an award - Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year, so click here to go and vote for it!

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The Mithraeum at Rome's Baths of Caracalla

I was recently very excited to hear that a mithraeum underneath the Baths of Caracalla in Rome has been restored and reopened to the public.

A mithraeum is an underground temple used by worshippers of the Persian deity Mithras.  The male-only cult became popular in Rome in the 1st Century AD, particularly with soldiers, and mithraea have been found across the Empire, including in Britain.  One feature of the cult is that it was very secretive about its initiation rites and practices.  A famous and distinctive image found in numerous mithraea is the 'tauroctony' - the bull slaying scene.  The images below, of a tauroctony and the head of Mithras, are from the Walbrook mithraeum in London and can be seen in the Museum of London.

The example at the Baths of Caracalla is exciting because it is linked to such an important and prominent public structure.  I very much hope to see it at some point, but in the meantime I have been waiting for someone who has visited it to post some good images on the web.  I'm pleased to say that the 'Leaping Without a Net' blog has just done such a thing, so head over there now to see them.

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Travels with Li Dongni - Naples, Italy (December 2012)

Let's get some simple truths out of the way early on - Naples is a modern Italian city. By this I mean that it is dirty, many streets and buildings are in real need of some TLC, there's graffiti absolutely everywhere and the transportation system is unreliable to say the least. However, anyone who sees Naples as purely those things has missed out on a dynamic, vibrant and historically incredible city.

During our trip we managed to see a few sites in the city, and also to spend some time wandering the streets and popping into the magnificent baroque churches that Naples has in abundance.  Of particular interest were the intriguing narrow alleyways of the old city, which still follows the Greek and Roman city street plan. Below I've highlighted just a few of my favourites of the heritage sites we went to.

Naples National Archaeological Museum

This museum was number one on my list of places to visit in Naples, as its collections mark it out as probably the most important archaeological museum in Italy (through Rome's Capitoline museums and the Vatican collections are also wonderful).  The building itself is a former cavalry barracks in the heart of the city, created as a museum in the 1750's.

Sadly, despite its importance the museum is in need of some investment, as walls have visible damp damage and many galleries are in need of a new coat of paint.  The visitor facilities are also severely lacking for a modern museum, as there isn't even a cafe, just a room with vending machines in.

Although a large museum, the main collections can be easily divided into two categories - the Farnese collection of classical sculptures, and objects, frescoes and mosaics from the nearby Roman towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae - the 'Vesuvian belt' if you will.

The Farnese collection occupies the ground floor, and is displayed very much as an art collection.  The collection, as the name suggests, was formerly in the possession of the Farnese family during the 16th Century, when the Renaissance was leading to the rediscovery of both Greek and Roman ideas and physical remains.

Some sculptures in the collections are particularly famous, such as the 'Farnese bull' - a depiction of the myth of Dirce, being tied to a bull by the twins Amphion and Zethus as punishment for her unkind treatment of their mother.  It is the largest sculpture known from antiquity and once stood in the Baths of Caracalla at Rome.  For me, one of the delightful elements of the sculpture wasn't the main scene, but the varied depictions of wildlife around the edge of the base.

Another enormous remnant of the Baths of Caracalla is the statue of Hercules at rest, leaning against a broken pillar.  The scale of this is difficult to portray in photographs and because it depicts an individual rather than a group, it somehow seems even larger than the Farnese Bull.  The legs of the statue are an interesting story as they were lost for a number of years after discovery.  Replacement legs were carved by Guglielmo della Porta, but when the original legs were found the Farnese family chose not to reinstate them, to prove that modern scultpure was as good as ancient.  The original legs were restored years later, but the Renaissance replacements still hang in the gallery.

One particular statue which brought back memories was Ephesian Artemis (see here for my post of my visit to Ephesus), characteristically covered in what are sometimes said to be breasts, but are actually bull scrota.  Nice.

The upper floors of the museum are dedicated to the objects from Pompeii and the surrounding area, with the stars of the show undoubtedly the frescoes.  The images here are merely a selection of the wonderful examples on show.

Sadly we didn't get to see all of the frescoes on offer (including the ones from Pompeii's Temple of Isis which I had particularly hoped to see) as another of the museum's 'quirks' revealed itself.  Basically, due to a lack of funding, there aren't enough staff to cover all of the galleries, so they are closed on a rotational basis.  Of course, you never know what will be closed and when, and this led to us being brusquely ushered out of a suite of rooms halfway round with no explanation and no apology.  For a museum of international importance (and one that charges a more than nominal entrance fee) this is simply unacceptable.

The museum boasts a fine collection of mosaics, including the huge and detailed mosaic of Alexander the Great fighting King Darius from Pompeii's House of the Faun (see here for my post on visiting Pompeii).  For anyone more familiar with Romano-British mosaics, the quality is simple eye-watering.

A unique highlight of the museum has to be the 'secret cabinet' - a display of the museum's naughtiest imagery, kept locked away from under-age visitors since it was set up in the 18th Century.  Although it has even been bricked up in the past to prevent the contents perverting innocent minds, it is now open to modern visitors, who are definitely more immune to the effects of seeing such material!  Still, if you can't enjoy a good Roman winged phallus, then there's something wrong with the world...

I was particularly interested in the depictions of Mercury with an enormous phallus, and even one statuette with a multi-phallused hat.  Its fair to say that, despite the popularity of Mercury worship in Roman Britain, such a depiction of the god has yet to be discovered in the province!

Naples Underground and Roman theatre

Although it sounds like a nightclub, Naples Underground is a tourist attraction that offers the chance to go under the city to explore a series of caverns which are the result of Greek stone mining, and subsequently used by the Romans for water storage, as a rubbish dump and as wartime bomb shelters.  Some sections of the tour involved squeezing through incredibly tight corridors while holding a small candle, and the whole experience was fascinating, and led by a very good guide.

The ticket also includes being walked around the corner (in a less than salubrious part of town it has to be said) and into an old fashioned house.  The story goes that the house used to be lived in by an old lady, who unbeknownst to all had part of a Roman theatre as her wine cellar (accessed through a large trap door under her bed!).  The area underneath both her house and her neighbours' has now been opened up and part of the backstage of the theatre can be explored. Above ground, two arches still exist which supported the giant, curved outer wall of the structure.  The theatre is of particular interest as the Emperor Nero is known to have performed there.

San Lorenzo Maggiore

Although San Lorenzo Maggiore is a church, our interest in visiting it very much lay in what can be found beneath the standing structure.  We actually visited on our first evening in Naples while enduring a torrential rainstorm, so were glad of the shelter and even more so for what we were able to see.  The site sits on both the Greek agora (marketplace) and the Roman forum, so it is essentially the public heart of the ancient city.

The main remains on display are of shops and buildings around the forum, and many vaulted roofs still survive.

One room which caused particular fascination to our group was the 'treasury', basically a public bank vault.  The strengthened door and holes for bars to secure the window are wonderfully evocative.

Castel Sant'Elmo

This imposing fortification occupies a commanding position on a hill overlooking the Bay of Naples, and is one of a string of defensive sites to be found in the city such as the Norman 'Castel dell'Ovo' and the 13th Century 'Castel Nuovo'.  We reached Castel Sant'Elmo via one of Naples' modern, and very funky, funicular railways.

The Castel itself is a strange site - huge and imposing when seen from the ground, but when you travel up in the lift to get to the top to start your visit, the open courtyard has no interpretation, and seems to be filled with offices (some relating to the cultural heritage bureau).  We were left very confused as to what there actually was to see.  Thankfully, though, one highlight soon became apparent - Castel Sant'Elmo offers breathtaking views across the bay of Naples towards Vesuvius.

It was only when we decided that there wasn't anything else to see and started following the 'exit' signs that we actually started to see the fortification itself, as the exit route winds you down the outside of the impressive structure.  Dating back to the 13th Century, but having undergone various episodes of remodelling, the castle appears in the form of a hexagonal star.  At their height, the tops of the defences stand 50 metres from the ground.

 Certosa di San Martino

This is a former Carthusian monastary near to Castel Sant'Elmo and is now a museum.  The museum has a wide variety of displays - from porcelain to boats, fine art to actors and characters from modern and traditional theatre.  It also contains many fine buildings with beautifully decorated ceilings.  Photography wasn't strictly allowed inside, but seeing as everyone else was doing it and the guards didn't seem to care, I snapped off a few quick photos on my phone, just for you.

And this little tour of Naples draws to a close.  I confess that I had no expectations of the city at all, as popular opinion had suggested that Naples was nothing more than the negative stereotype I mentioned at the start - dirty and theft-ridden.  Thankfully, the city proved to be far, far more than that, and I dearly hope to be able to make a return visit at some point in the future.

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