#InternationalDanceDay is it? Here are 2 images from the #tomb of Gaius Vestorius Priscus in #Pompeii. Supposedly these women are engaged in a #Bacchic ritual, but I can't help but see something that looks remarkably like pole dancing. I love this tomb. Here's why (thread):

There is a lot of info in his #epitaph about his age for gaining office, his mom, #tomb financing, public donations, and that HUGELY mis-understood ex decretio decurionum phrase. The tomb is best known for the #gladiator, silver dining service, and curule chair #frescos.

It also has these giant stones in front of it. I will absolutley not admit to precariously balancing on them to get photos of said #frescos when I was doing fieldwork during my PhD. But what I LOVE is that the giant stones led me to another discovery.

I noticed that these large uninscribed lava cippi are all over the necropoli of #Pompeii. They even run down the side of this particular tomb. Why? Good question. I started thinking maybe boundary markers. I spent a lot of time (with this in particular) trying to figure out how.

So one very hot, frustrated me gave up and was sitting in the shade at the back of the tomb. And I saw it. A straight path was created by the cippi, leading from the front to the rear of the tomb. Why (I hear you asking again)?

Because on the other side... Directly abutting another #tomb. And the entrance to Vestorius Priscus' tomb? The *only* way to see those gorgeous #frescos or offer libations? At the back. So the stones ensure that the tomb chamber will always be accessible.

And this is why I love this #tomb. It made me see something no one had noticed, and helped me see how many cippi boundary markers in a #funerary context there actually were in #Pompeii. (I could bore you with lots of #RomanLaw on this too, but you can read about it in my book.)