4 ms·

The craftsmanship is indeed amazing. But, where did the central floor tiles go? Did they decompose? Stolen?

• chrononaut 2y ago
  Given that the tiles along parts of the perimeter are intact, I imagine the tiles might've shattered in many small pieces when the roof collapsed during the eruption, and they didn't want to just leave them there during the excavation
• doodlebugging 2y ago
  I wondered about that myself and decided that they were probably removed by those doing the excavation for conservation purposes. If you refer to the 11th photo where you are looking diagonally across the room toward the corner you can see evidence in the thin accent tiles that the collapse of the columns along the right wall and left of the corner damaged the floor. Several of those accent tiles are broken as if something long crushed them as it landed. It is especially noticeable in the lower center foreground where there are several crushed tiles. They have taken care to place their post jacks on a surface elevated above the original floor level to avoid disturbing the rest of the layout.