The Pompeii Lakshmi is an ivory statuette that was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, which was destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 79 CE. She was found by Amedeo Maiuri, an Italian scholar in 1938. The statuette has been dated to the first-century CE. The statuette is thought of as representing an Indian goddess of feminine beauty and fertility. It is possible that the sculpture originally formed the handle of a mirror. Lakshmi is a reminder of commercial trade of goods and resources between India and Italy in the first century CE. Over the years historians have been able to connect Roman trade with the far east specifically India.