Image Details

Delighted by her find, Miriam Samet proudly holds up a stone head of a panther. The artifact turned out to be part of a marble table with legs carved in the image of panthers. The half-ton table once graced a small courtyard garden, known as a viridarium, that would have been among the many pleasures enjoyed by the family that owned the estate. The marble came from the quarries of Thasos, in Greece; the picture shows a similar table found at Pompeii.