A large number of fragments of wall painting was found during the excavation of one room in the ruins of the Roman villa at Agios Donatos in Thesprotia, Greece. The villa was situated within a former Early Hellenistic fortress, overlooking the Kokytos Valley.
The question was whether the more than 2500 fragments belonged to one painting or if they came from different wall decorations, maybe made at different times. Material studies of the fragments showed that they belonged to one painting, which was confirmed by laboratory analyses of a relevant set of samples. Analyses were performed at CNR/ICVBC in Florence. According to stylistic interpretations the decoration was made in the so called Second Pompeian style, which in Italy was in vogue in the 1st century BC.
The study was made within the archaeological project ”The Thesprotia Expedition” of the Finnish Institute at Athens. See Publications/Articles.
