Who Really Owned the Silver Treasury of Pompeii?

The large amount of silver found at Menander's house in Pompeii is raising a lot of questions to this day. Pompeii was destroyed when a Mt. Vesuvius erupted and the city and its inhabitants were covered with lava, poisonous gas and volcanic ash.

Menander, an inhabitant of this summer playground for Rome's wealthy, left behind a lot of silver objects that people are still puzzling over.

For example, one scholar divided the silver jewelry and silver flatware and silver dining service by the class of who would have used these silver objects.

One conclusion that was drawn was that the silver jewelry belongs to a woman. You can imagine how a scholar could come to this conclusion because certain pieces of silver jewelry would have been associated with women, just as certain pieces of jewelry are today. Some of the silver jewelry was sized for an adult, while some of it would have fit a child. And some of the silver rings could have belongs to a man. The conclusion drawn was that this set of silver jewelry belonged to a woman who had her own silver pieces, kept some from childhood and also had some silver jewelry that belonged to her husband or a male relative.

But they admit that it could also be argued that a man might have kept his own silver jewelry along with that of his wife, females relative or child.

So that also leads to the idea that this hoard of silver jewelry belonged to more than one person. Who can really say? It is interesting to read about how those who investigate relics of the past find way to interpret what may or may not have happened. Although in this case, I hate to say it, but their conclusions are kind of obvious. The silver jewelry had to be the property of a woman or a man or of more than one person. Maybe everyone in the house, owners, servants, visitors and all threw their silver jewelry into one box each night before they went to bed. Well, that conclusion is not very likely, but anything is possible.

If you have some silver jewelry that for some reason is stored in your house and you are not sure who it belongs to, remember that a silver buyer will be more than happy to help you when you decide to sell silver jewelry.