Hermann’s 14-centimeter-long turtle skeleton and egg were found during excavations in an area of the Old City that was rebuilt after the earthquake to build public baths, officials said Friday.
Then Pompeii was completely destroyed after the eruption of the volcano in the year 79 AD.
Scientists believe that the turtle, which was popular in southern Europe, took refuge in the rubble of a house that was badly destroyed during the earthquake and has not been reconstructed.
Gabriel Zuchtregel, Pompeii’s general manager, stated that the fact that she was still carrying her egg indicates that she died before she could find a suitable safe place to lay her.
“It makes us think of Pompeii at that point after the earthquake and before the volcano eruption, when many houses were rebuilt, and the whole city was a construction site, and obviously some places were so unused that wild animals walked in and tried to lay their eggs inside.”
He also clarified that it was not the first tortoise found in Pompeii, and noted that the most important focus of current excavation and research is on organic and agricultural materials found outside the Pompeii urban center.
He added that the discovery of the tortoise adds “to this mosaic of relationships between culture, nature, society and the environment that represents the history of ancient Pompeii.”
The Free University of Berlin, the University of the Orient in Naples and the University of Oxford are excavating in the Stabian, the Baths Department of Pompeii, as well as the ruins of Pompeii.
#turtle #egg #excavation #Pompeii
