Restored ancient Pompeii chariot unveiled in new exhibit

Описание: (3 May 2023)
ITALY POMPEII CHARIOT

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

LENGTH: 6:22

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome, Italy - 3 May 2023

1. Wide of chariot rear
2. Pan right of chariot decorations
3. Close of chariot decorations
4. Tilt up of chariot decorations
5. Close of chariot decorations
6. Wide of Massimo Sanna, general director of Italian Ministry of Culture, looking at chariot
7. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Massimo Sanna, general director of Italian Ministry of Culture:
"As was immediately recognisable, it was not a chariot for livestock transport, for carrying bread or for other agricultural activities, but a ceremonial chariot. A wagon covered in bronze and silver, which was meant to shine, had four wheels and was decorated in wood and red. It was a chariot used for ritual activities and we wondered what it was. Studies revealed that it was a pilentum, a chariot used by matrons and brides to be transported to their husbands' homes. This explains some unusual iconography of abduction. There are in the silver roundels of satyrs assaulting nymphs, erotic scenes, this is a marriage metaphor: marriage is a rapture, the scene and iconography allude to the function of the chariot, that of transporting the bride to her new destiny."

8. Wheels of chariot
9. Close of wheel fragment
10. Pan right of chariot’s wheel pivot
11. Wide of chariot’s seat, statue in background
12. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Massimo Sanna, general director of Italian Ministry of Culture:
"The restoration took over a year, as did the excavation, because it is an extremely complex artefact made of wood, iron, and bronze and silver. The problem is that the materials lasted while the wood disappeared, and it was the wood that gave the structure stability. The excavation was a destruction of the negative traces on the ash that we had of the disappeared materials, so to reconstruct the chariot, many documentary sources were needed. It was only through documentation that the restoration of individual pieces and assembly could be done. A complex task, but, I have to say, very satisfying in the result."

13. Wide of chariot front
14. Close of chariot’s side decorations
15. Pan right of chariot’s side decorations
16. Wide of chariot’s seat
17. Tilt up of chariot’s seat
18. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Massimo Sanna, general director of Italian Ministry of Culture:
"The discovery of the chariot was extraordinary. We were on the trail of a wagon, but it never appeared. The prosecutor's wiretaps revealed that grave robbers were looking for a chariot, yet after 4 meters of excavation, nothing appeared. One morning, an iron bar surfaced, the one holding the chariot seat, and the excitement was so great because we knew right away it was a chariot. Initially, we thought it was a two-wheeled chariot, but then it became clear that the structure included four wheels and therefore it could not be a standard chariot, but that it was a ceremonial chariot, as it later became clear, a pilentum."

19. Wide of chariot
20. Pan right of statues and chariot
21. Wide of Stéphane Verger, Museo Nazionale Romano director, talking in front of camera
22. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Stéphane Verger, Museo Nazionale Romano director:

23. Wide of chariot
24. Various of chariot decorations
25. Wide of chariot
26. Wide of Terme di Diocleziano building exterior
27. People entering exhibit
28. Wide of exhibit sign

LEADIN:

A chariot that was used to transport wives to their husbands in Pompeii during the Roman era has been unveiled as part of a new exhibit at the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.


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