March
11
/ 2026
A new scientific study has put a price tag on one of the most striking features of ancient Pompeii: the luminous Egyptian blue that coats the walls of a small private shrine. Research published in the journal npj Heritage Science reveals that the pigment alone in a single nine-square-meter room would have cost between 50% and 90% of a Roman legionary's annual salary — a figure that speaks volumes about the wealth and ambition of the city's elite. Far from a decorative whim, the choice to paint in blue was a calculated statement of status, one that modern science can now, for the first time, quantify with precision. A Shrine of Status and Symbolism The subject of the study is
