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House of the Priest Amandus

The entrance to the house of the Priest Amandus opens inconspicuously from the south side of Via dell Abbondanza to the west of its confluence with the Vicolo del Efebo. This building was first excavated in 1912 and again investigated in more detail in 1924. The house of the priest Amandus got its name from the inscription on the outer wall, which says "Amandus Sakerdos". You can see it in the far left corner.

It was a modest but nice little house. Interestingly, under a layer of later frescoes, pictures and texts were found in Oscan language. Apparently, in addition to Latin, the locals used at least one, and possibly many other languages ​​that persisted for several decades after Pompeii became part of the Roman Empire. 9 bodies of different ages and sexes were found here. All of them were found in the corridor of the mansion. Their skeletons were found at a height of a little less than a meter, which gave archaeologists the right to claim that the inhabitants of this building died at the very beginning of the eruption. Apparently at this moment, the residents of the House of Priest Amandus realized that they had to leave the house and flee the city. However, their plans were interrupted suddenly. Most likely it was due to the collapse of the roof, which killed them all at once. Even if the victims did not immediately die, there was no one to pull them out from under the ruins.

The corridor where the bodies of the dead were found was found leads to a square atrium (b) or a living room with rooms on its southern side. The atrium has a central decorative pool, and its walls are decorated with frescoes in the third style, although some of this decoration remains today. The southern wall was decorated with large white panels above the bottom red frieze. The western wall was painted red to the upper part of the doors with the upper area in white, decorated with architectural elements.

The building in the northeast corner of the atrium is the kitchen (c) of the house. The walls of the room were roughly plastered, but today there is little plaster left. On the western wall of the kitchen is a stone warehouse. In the eastern part of the kitchen there is a small storage room and a restroom with a low bench on the outer wall. Next to the kitchen there is, apparently, a pantry (d) with roughly plastered walls. The room is illuminated by a window, mounted high in the east wall.