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A Pompeii wardrobe and a 9,000-year-old Irish 'Swiss Army kit': two digs, two snapshots

Two very different excavations this week offered close-up views of everyday life in the past.

In Italy, archaeologists have found fragments of personal objects — makeup tools, a perfume bottle, coins and a child's necklace — tucked away in a wooden wardrobe sealed off for almost 2,000 years in the ruins of Pompeii, The Guardian reported on October 30. The wardrobe was in a room of a home on Via dell'Abbondanza, one of the busiest streets in the Roman city before Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. The Guardian describes the find as an intimate glimpse of daily life before the disaster.

In Ireland, RTÉ reported on October 29 that researchers working at the Threecastles Solar Farm near Blessington have found what is believed to be the oldest archaeological site ever excavated in Co Wicklow, with a find nicknamed a 9,000-year-old “Swiss Army kit”.

How each outlet framed it

• The Guardian — the human detail: cosmetics, jewellery and a child's necklace as traces of a household on Pompeii's main street.
• RTÉ — a regional first: a record for Wicklow, uncovered during work on a renewable energy site.

The two finds are about 7,000 years apart, but both come from routine work rather than a hunt for treasure: ongoing excavation of Pompeii's houses in one case, groundworks for a solar farm in the other. For visitors, Pompeii's Via dell'Abbondanza is already part of the open archaeological site.

What we don't know yet: whether the Pompeii objects will go on display, and exactly what tools make up Wicklow's “kit”, which RTÉ's summary does not list.