Stunning ancient Roman mosaic found submerged in the sea off Naples
By Jack Guy and Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN
(CNN) — A mosaic from the floor of an ancient Roman villa has been uncovered on the seabed in the waters off Naples.
Now underwater, the marble floor would originally have been located in the “protiro,” or decorated porch, of a residence overlooking the sea, according to a Facebook post from the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park, which is part of the Italian Ministry of Culture, published Tuesday.
Built in the ancient spa town of Baiae, which was popular during the late Roman Empire and home to residences owned by Julius Caesar and the Emperor Nero, the villa is part of an area of land that became submerged as the result of a geological phenomenon called bradyseism, during which the ground rises or, as in this case, falls due to pressure under the surface.
Preliminary research shows that the floor is largely made of irregularly shaped pieces of reused marble, a technique that was common from the 3rd to the 5th century CE, according to the park.
The marble is also broken up because the walls of the room, which were more than 10 meters (32 feet) high, collapsed onto the floor, it added.
Underwater work continues to uncover and restore more of the floor, while some sections have been removed and cleaned on land.
The aim is to try to reconstitute an entire section of the floor, according to the post.
Local mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione called the find “stupendous” in a post on Facebook.
The floor would have been laid toward the end of the Roman Empire, “shortly before bradyseism brought these wonders to the bottom of the sea,” he said.
The area is now a popular diving spot, offering opportunities to see submerged ruins.
Campi Flegrei, or the Phlegraean Fields – a large, volcanic area that stretches 200 kilometers (125 miles) under the bay of Naples and the islands of Capri and Ischia to the outskirts of the city of Naples – is a giant caldera, or depression.
It is now the site of multiple volcanoes that have been active for 39,000 years, many of which lie underwater.
The last major eruption of Campi Flegrei was in 1538, and it created a new mountain in the bay.
Seismic activity in the area has been intensifying since December 2022, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), and experts fear the volcano could be reawakening after generations at rest.
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