Discovery News’ Rossella Lorenzi is reporting on the rediscovery of 15 life-size theatre masks from Pompeii which were originally excavated in 1749, then stored and forgotten in a Bourbon palace storage room. Mariarosaria Borriello, who made the rediscovery dixit:
“They ended up being totally forgotten, and indeed we do not have much information about them. We do not even know where they were unearthed in Pompeii. The 18th century dig journals only vaguely record that 15 masks were excavated … Two masks show letters in the space usually reserved to the mouth. While the meaning of one is incomprehensible, on the other we can clearly read the word ‘Buco’ … Not all of the masks belong to the fabula Atellana, but finding at least one evidence linked to it is very important. Indeed, no fragment of early Atellan farces has survived”
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