Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - A Canadian woman has sent back to Italy five artifacts she stole from Pompeii in 2005, during her visit to Pompeii, the ancient Roman city in southern Italy that was destroyed by a volcano.
The tourist who identified herself as Nicole, sent two white mosaic tiles, two pieces of amphora vase, and a piece of a ceramic wall to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
In her letter, ‘Nicole’ explained the decision to return artifacts. She wrote that the things she stole brought a series of misfortunes to her and her family.
"We can't ever seem to get ahead in life," she wrote, blaming the bad luck on the tiles, writes CNN.
"I wanted to have a piece of history that couldn't be bought," she wrote in the letter. She was very ‘young and dumb" at the time.
Since returning to her country, she was suffering from breast cancer twice and experiencing financial problems in her family.
"I took a piece of history captured in a time with so much negative energy attached to it," she wrote. "People died in such a horrible way and I took tiles related to that kind of destruction."
"We are good people and I don't want to pass this curse on to my family, my children, or myself anymore," she wrote.
"Please forgive the careless act that I did years ago."
On February 5, 62 AD Pompeii, an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, was at the epicenter of an earthquake.
The earthquake was approximately 7.5 in magnitude and may have been a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The catastrophic effects almost destroyed the city. According to Seneca the Younger, the contemporary philosopher, and dramatist, the earthquake destroyed the region of the cities of Herculaneum, Naples, and Nuceria.
As soon as it was only possible, the citizens of Pompeii began a rebuilding effort by clearing away the rubble and engineers began preparations for rebuilding public buildings and services. Even the emperor Nero was interested in the restoration of the devastated city, but the works took time especially due to shortages of workers and craftsmen. Many residents had to wait a long time even years before help was forthcoming.
The city of Pompeii at the time had a population of 20,000 and was a compact city built in a fashion that could not withstand earthquakes.
Over the years, many visitors have returned small artifacts like mosaic tiles and pieces of plaster that they stole during a visit to Pompeii, according to a spokeswoman for the park.
The artifacts were returned back with letters explaining ‘to have derived only bad luck’ from taking away the artifacts, the spokeswoman said.
Both the returned artifacts associated with the ruins of Pompeii and a selection of letters attached to them are on display at the Pompeii Antiquarium.
Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
