The garden of a large ancient house in Pompeii was home to stunning paintings depicting the Nile river flowing among green lush landscapes. These artworks could shed light on the way the Romans viewed the ancient Egyptian culture, and how they integrated it into their own.
In a study now published online in the American Journal of Archeology, researcher Caitlin Barrett shows that these “Nilotic scenes” give the Pompeian house a more cosmopolitan feel. They transform it into a microcosm of the Roman civilization – which at the time had spread all around the Mediterranean, all the way to Egypt. “Nilotic paintings are one manifestation of a broader phenomenon in Roman culture: a strong interest in things Egyptian. There has been a lot of debate in recent years about why exactly that was. The paintings from the Casa dell’Efebo were created after Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but several generations after Augustus’ initial conquest of Egypt”, Barrett, from the Department of Classics at Cornell University.
To read the AJA article – https://www.ajaonline.org/node/3420
To read more at – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4480608/Archaeologists-paintings-ancient-Egypt-Pompeii.html
