it one of the least accessible rooms in the villa to visitors. Because of its rich decoration and relative inaccessibility, it is thought to have been used on special occasions for invited guests. The bodies of two women and a child were found in lower pumice eruption layers of the Villa, suggesting that they were caught in the early stages of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They were on the upper floor of the farm section and plaster casts were made of them as in other areas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Six bodies (one girl near the entrance, one woman, four others in the cryptoporticus) were found in the later higher pyroclastic eruption layers indicating they had survived the first part of the catastrophe. Frescoes The villa is named for the paintings Room 5, which are in the Second Style and dated to about 70-60 BC. Although the actual subject of the frescoes is debated, the most common interpretation is that they depict the initiation of a woman into matrimony in accordance with the Dionysian Mysteries, a mystery cult devoted to the god known to the Romans as Bacchus. Specific rites were required to become a member. A key feature that helps to identify these scenes as Bacchic is the depiction of maenads, the deity's female followers. These devotees are often shown dancing with swirling drapery on painted Greek pottery from the sixth century BC onward. There are many different interpretations of the frescoes, but they are commonly believed to depict a religious rite in some form. A common theory is that the frescoes depict a bride initiating into the Bacchic Mysteries in preparation for marriage. In this hypothesis, the elaborate costume worn by the main figure is believed to be wedding apparel. Restorations The famous frescoes of the villa were first discovered in 1909, but they were soon damaged by a combination of poor protection from the elements and an earthquake that occurred in June. The major problems that developed were damp and salt-residues that leached from the ground, causing white stains to appear on the surface of the paintings. To counteract this, large sections of the frescoes were removed and re-attached after the walls were rebuilt with new stone to better resist the damp and salt leaching. According to the preservation methods prevalent at the time, coatings of wax and petroleum were applied to remove the residues and