The claim

Pompeii never ceases to amaze us!
We have just received news of the discovery of a villa already called the “Villa of the Kittens” by archaeologists, richly decorated with mosaics depicting cats!

Our conclusion

There are real mosaics of cats from Roman times. However, these images were created by an artificial intelligence.

A few weeks ago, pictures of mosaics that were said to come from Pompeii appeared on Facebook and Twitter. They show cats eating and playing. Some of the cats in the mosaics appear very lifelike, other depictions appear clumsy or have strange details. We went looking for clues.

Posted by Sebastiano Vianello on Friday, November 4, 2022
Posted by Sebastiano Vianello on Friday, November 4, 2022
Posted by Sebastiano Vianello on Friday, November 4, 2022

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Mosaics in the House of the Faun in Pompeii

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, the ancient Roman city of Pompeii was buried. This was a fatal catastrophe for the residents, but a stroke of luck for researchers. Buildings, everyday objects and even works of art were preserved in this way that would otherwise have fallen victim to the ravages of time. During excavations in 1829-33, a special treasure was discovered: the House of the Faun with sculptures, gold jewelry, silver vessels and mosaics.

A statue of a dancing faun served as the inspiration for the name by which the building is known today. It was built at the beginning of the 2nd century BC and rebuilt again a few decades later. Baths and new wall paintings were added, as well as a series of Alexandrian-influenced mosaics: Alexander the Great during a battle, the lovemaking of a faunus and a bacchante, and some depictions of animals. One shows a cat that has just caught a quail.

Mosaics from the “Villa of the Kittens”

At the beginning of November, Italian artist Sebastiano Vianello posted pictures of mosaics that appeared to have been newly discovered in Pompeii:

We have just received news of the discovery of a villa already called the “Villa of the Kittens” by archaeologists, richly decorated with mosaics depicting cats!

Sebastiano Vianello on Facebook

If you look at the map of the sites to visit in Pompeii, you will look in vain for a “Villa of the Kittens” (Villa dei Gattini). there was no report about it in newspapers or the “Newsletter of the Pompeii Excavations” ( notiziario degli scavi di Pompei ) of the Archaeological Park

Pompeii map
Map of the excavations, pompeiisites.org

No, mosaics were generated by AI

Pompei is not a surprise! These days the note of the scope of a villa is given by the archaeological “Villa dei Gattini”, richly decorated with mosaic raffiguranti gatti!

Posted by Sebastiano Vianello at the Friday, November 4, 2022

A few days later, the artist himself provided clarification: The images were created using the Midjourney program, which can create works of art from text input using artificial intelligence. The images were not initially intended as a joke, but eventually became one as more and more people believed them to be real.

For some time now I have been working on this new technology for creating images with “artificial intelligence”. […] After creating the Facebook group ' Midjourney's Cats ' (which I invite you to visit), I began to invent thematic images accompanied by short stories and embellishments. […]

A few days ago I had the idea of ​​taking inspiration from Roman mosaics and so I made the “infamous” cat mosaics.
To give them a context, I made up, as I always do, the story of Pompeii and the Villa of the Kittens. […] I won't delete the post, let alone add a warning that it's fake, I'm having too much fun for that. I feel sorry for those who don't know how to joke. […]

Excerpt from the FB posting in which Sebastiano Vianello explains himself

CONCLUSION

There are real mosaics of cats from Roman times. However, these supposed images from Pompeii were created using Midjourney (a program with artificial intelligence).

We have already reported extensively in the past about the dawning age of artificial intelligence . AI detects emotions or early stage cancer She turns chatbots into somewhat credible conversation partners or paints the last selfie in the world. Midjourney has even won an art competition .


Sources: pompeiisites.org , Sebastiano Vianello , FACTA , Snopes

Further fact check: Erich Kästner: Dear, good Santa Claus

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