A child's charm necklace was still in a Pompeii wardrobe
Archaeologists opened a wooden cabinet sealed since the eruption in AD 79 and found a perfume bottle, 38 coins, and a necklace of more than 20 charms made for a child.
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A wooden wardrobe in Pompeii, shut since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, held a child's charm necklace, a perfume bottle, and 38 bronze coins. The Guardian reported the find on October 30, 2026. The cabinet was in a house on Via dell'Abbondanza, once one of the city's busiest streets.
With the necklace were tweezers, a small glass perfume bottle, an incense burner, a bronze lantern, cooking pots, and a wooden box of lead weights. The necklace, a crepundia, carries more than 20 charms, including the gods Bes and Mercury. Those charms rattled so parents could keep track of children and help identify them. Park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said a crepundia also remembered parents who might live far away, in a society where many people moved around the Mediterranean and carried personal objects with them. The weights suggest someone in the house worked a trade. Money and belongings left behind fit a departure on short notice, he said.
The house has been linked to a person named Cornelius Maximus from inscriptions that are no longer visible. Its facade was first excavated in 1912. Archaeologists are only now working through some of the rooms. They also found the fragmented skeletons of two mice in an amphora in a storage area. Separate work is under way in the servants' quarters at the Villa of the Mysteries, a site first opened in the early 20th century and never fully dug. Zuchtriegel said that dig is aimed at daily life, not the famous frescoes. The story here is the wardrobe and what was still inside it.
For the classroom
Pompeii is an old Roman city in Italy. The Guardian reported on October 30, 2026, that archaeologists opened a wooden wardrobe shut for almost 2,000 years. It stood in a house on a street that was once very busy. Inside were a small perfume bottle, a lantern, 38 coins, and cooking pots. The standout was a child's necklace with more than 20 charms, including pictures of the gods Bes and Mercury. The charms rattled so parents could keep track of children. The house front was first dug in 1912. The rooms behind it are being studied now. The news is what was still in the cabinet.
- Why would a necklace that makes a small noise help a parent find a child in a crowd?
- If your class buried a box for people to open in 100 years, what one object would you put in it?
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