A wooden wardrobe that lay sealed for almost 2,000 years has given up fragments of personal objects, from makeup tools and a perfume bottle to coins and a child's necklace, in the latest Pompeii wardrobe discovery. The artifacts date from before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 that destroyed the ancient Roman city.

Objects preserved since AD79

The wardrobe came to light in a room of a home on Via dell'Abbondanza, one of the most bustling streets in Pompeii. Inside it, archaeologists found:

• •tweezers
• •a small glass perfume bottle
• •an incense burner
• •a bronze lantern

The most notable piece was a necklace with more than 20 small charms crafted from various materials, representing several deities, including the gods Bes and Mercury.

A child's crepundia necklace

The necklace belongs to a type known as a crepundia, traditionally worn by children. Its decorative charms rattled to help parents keep track of their children and could be used to identify them.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archaeological park, said a crepundia had a very special function as a reminder of parents who perhaps lived far away. He added that it was very typical of a society of people who were often displaced, many of whom moved around the Mediterranean area carrying personal objects with them.

Clues to who lived there

The wardrobe also held 38 bronze coins, cooking pots and a wooden box with lead weights, suggesting that someone living in the home was a tradesperson. According to Zuchtriegel, the fact that money and personal objects were left behind could point to the owners having to flee the eruption at short notice.

Other finds in the home include:

• •the fragmented skeletons of two mice, inside an amphora kept in a storage area
• •inscriptions, no longer visible, that had led the home to be associated with a person called Cornelius Maximus

Excavations continuing in Pompeii

The home's facade was first excavated in 1912, but experts are only now delving into some of its rooms as part of a wider restoration project.

Excavations are also under way at the Villa of the Mysteries, in a suburb of Pompeii, which first came to light in the early 20th century. Zuchtriegel said the villa has never been completely excavated and the team wants to finish the job. They are digging the servants' quarters rather than the owners' living areas, hoping for more insight into the daily life and economy of those in the shadow of history, since most of the villa's inhabitants were servants.

Recent years have brought other finds in the same city. In 2025, excavations of a home on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a wealthy district, uncovered a large and sophisticated thermal bath complex thought to have been used by its owner to impress well-heeled guests. In 2023, a home with a cramped bakery, where enslaved people were believed to have been imprisoned and made to produce bread, was found in the same district.

Experts are exploring the home's rooms as part of the wider restoration project, with excavations also under way at the never fully excavated Villa of the Mysteries, focused on its servants' quarters.