Servilia and Lucius Caltilius Pamphilus, the married couple from Pompeii who were virtually reunited on a photomontage following the work of two British researchers, are now forever side by side in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Since the Discovery News story on the couple published earlier this month, the 2,000-year-old marble puzzle made of several inscribed fragments has been physically pieced together at the museum by Giuseppe Camodeca, professor of Roman history and Latin epigraphy at the University of Naples "L'Orientale."
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“All the pieces were found stored in the deposits of the museum. I discovered one more piece, so the inscription is now made of eight fragments,” Camodeca told Discovery News.
Broken apart and buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, the pieces belonged to a tomb inscription. They were unearthed in 1813 along the Via dei Sepolcri in Pompeii near a burial tomb known as "Tomb of the Marble Door."
The fragments were then stored in the huge deposits of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and later reassembled by piecing together six pieces.
The result was a fragmented funerary inscription that read "Lucius Catilius Pamphilus, freedman of Lucius, member of the Collinian tribe ... ”
Although two fragments contained the Latin word "uxori," indicating a wife, the puzzle remained unsolved until Peter Kruschwitz and Virginia Campbell of the University of Reading, U.K., found a key fragment by scrutinizing photographs of various fragments of inscriptions stored at the Naples museum.
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Containing nothing but the name of a female -- Servilia -- and the first part of a phrase, the fragment read "Seruiliae [...] amico anim [o ...]," making it easy to read the full inscription: "Lucius Catilius Pamphilus, freedman of Lucius, member of the Collinian tribe, for his wife Servilia, in a loving spirit."
The original excavation report stated that the fragmentary inscription consisted of seven pieces of marble, but Camodeca found another piece.
Filling the top right corner, the fragment just completes the puzzle.
After nearly 2,000 years, Lucius Catilius Pamphilus’ love for his wife, Servilia, is finally written on stone.
“We have a legible square marble inscription which measures 76 by 76 centimeters (30x30 inches). I hope that now the inscription will be restored and eventually displayed at the museum,” Camodeca said.
Photo: Courtesy Giuseppe Camodeca
Tags: Ancient Documents, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Conservation
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