Archeologists in Italy have discovered violent children’s drawings that were inspired by gladiator battles in Pompeii’s amphitheater, The Guardian reported.
Archeologists made the discoveries of the charcoal drawings while making excavations at I’Insula dei Casti Amanti, a group of homes in a new archeological park that opened to the public last Tuesday, according to The Guardian.
The discoveries were made along a wall that included images of three small hands, a pair of figures playing with a ball, a hunting scene and an image of two boxers apparently knocked out, The Guardian reported. (RELATED: Scientists Reveal Newly Legible Pompeii Scrolls, Unread For Almost 2,000 Years. Is History About To Blow Up)
Pompeii gladiator drawings suggest children saw ‘extreme form’ of violence | CNN via @romanhistory1 https://t.co/55vzhmiIjL
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The director of The Archeological Park of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said it’s likely that children who played in a courtyard in the area drew the images before Mount Vesuvius‘ eruption destroyed the Roman city in 79 AD, the newspaper reported.
“Together with psychologists from the Federico II [university of Naples], we have come to the conclusion that the drawings of gladiators and hunters were made based on a direct vision, and not of pictorial models. They had probably witnessed battles in the ampitheatre, thus coming into contact with an extreme form of spectacularised violence,” Zuchtriegel said.
Archeologists believe that the pictures show children in ancient times were exposed to extreme violence, CNN reported.
“It does not seem to be a problem only of today, between video games and social media,” Zuchtriegel said. “The difference is that, in ancient times, the bloodshed in the arena was real and that few saw it as a problem with all the possible repercussions on the psycho-mental development of Pompeian children.”
“The drawings show us the impact of this on the imagination of a young boy or girl, subject to the same developmental stages that are still found today,” Zuchtriegel added.
The latest excavations represent the ongoing effort to save the ancient Pompeii site after it was neglected for years, CNN reported.
