German-Italian archaeologist Gabriel Zuchtriegel has been confirmed as director of Pompeii Archaeological Park for a second 4-year term. Under his direction Pompeii has experienced a great revival, with numerous discoveries of new finds (statues and frescoes) and a sharp increase in visitors from around the world. Upcoming initiatives include the exhibition "Being a Woman in Ancient Pompeii", which will open April 16 in the Great Gymnasium. Zuchtriegel explains that women in Roman society benefited from more space than in Greek society. "In this new fresco, the 'initiated' woman becomes a bacchante, dances, goes hunting, holds a sword and the entrails of an animal in her hands, wears her hair down going around the mountains and in the woods: it is an image in contrast to the image of the woman who stays at home and coiffs her hair. The ancients, perhaps more than us, were able to live with these contradictions and contain them in ritual as well. It was not a pure literary or artistic fantasy, because for example Alexander the Great's mother was part of a thiasos, a group of Dionysian women, and this also led to tensions in her marriage". Among the projects launched in Pompeii is "Dream of Flying", supported by Madonna's Ray of Light foundation, which draws teenagers and children to the archaeological park.