By Dr Salvatore Ciro Nappo
Last updated 2011-02-17
The buried buildings of Pompeii were designed to last only a few decades - but are still standing after nearly 2000 years. Dr Salvatore Ciro tells how the little town was rough-handled when it was first uncovered, but has survived to show us in amazing detail what town-life was like under Roman rule.
Pompeii was buried - although not, as we now know, destroyed - when the nearby, supposedly extinct, volcano Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, covering the town and its inhabitants in many tons of pumice and volcanic ash. The disaster remained in people's minds for many years but was eventually forgotten, until the exploration of the ancient site started in an area called 'Civita', in 1748. This was found to be a comparatively easy task, because the debris that had caused such chaos was light and not compacted.
... artefacts and wall paintings were damaged or irreparably destroyed.
During the first phase, the excavation was carried out essentially in order to find art objects. Many artefacts considered suitable for the private collection of the Bourbon king Charles III (reigned 1759-88) were removed, and transported to Naples - where they remain to this day, displayed in the Museo Nazionale. Meanwhile, other wall paintings were stripped from the walls and framed, and yet other artefacts and wall paintings were damaged or irreparably destroyed.
After the spoliation, buildings such as Villa di Cicerone and Villa di Giulia Felice were back-filled, although many famous scholars, among them Johann Winckelmann, demonstrated strongly against this, as they had against the previous destruction. Due to their pressure, the practices were stopped to some extent, although the stripping of the wall paintings continued.
By the end of the 18th century, two wide areas had been uncovered: the Quartiere dei Teatri with the Tempio d'Iside, and the Via delle Tombe with the Villa di Diomede. Two of the archaeologists most connected with this phase were Karl Weber and Francesco La Vega, who wrote detailed diary accounts of the works they carried out, and made very precise designs of the buildings being uncovered.
During the period of French control of Naples - (1806-1815) - the excavation methodology changed: things became more organised, and an itinerary was drawn up to accommodate the visits of scholars and important personages.
The French wanted to excavate the buried town systematically, going from west to east. In some periods of their influence they employed as many as 1500 workmen, and this concentration of effort resulted in the Foro, the Terme, the Casa di Pansa, the Casa di Sallustio and the Casa del Chirurgo all being excavated.
With the return of the Bourbon king Ferdinand I to Naples, this method of organising the excavations continued, but there were fewer funds available to back the project. By 1860 much of the western part of the town had been excavated.
The excavation of the Temple of Isis
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Giuseppe Fiorelli directed the Pompeii excavation from 1863 to 1875 - introducing an entirely new system for the project. Instead of uncovering the streets first, in order to excavate the houses from the ground floor up, he imposed a system of uncovering the houses from the top down - a better way of preserving everything that was discovered.
In this way the data collected during the excavations could be used to help with the restoration of the ancient buildings and of their interiors - although the most important wall paintings and mosaics still continued to be stripped and transported to Naples.
Fiorelli ... developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies.
Fiorelli also took the topography of the town and divided it into a system of 'regiones', 'insulae' and 'domus' - and he developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies that had been covered by the volcanic ash, and had then left a hole - shaped in the form of the plant or person - in that ash after putrefaction.
Michele Ruggiero, Giulio De Petra, Ettore Pais and Antonio Sogliano, continued Fiorelli's work in the following years, and during the last 20 years of the century began to restore the roofs of the houses with wood and tiles - in order to protect the remaining wall paintings and mosaics inside.
During these years many famous scholars came to study the remains of Pompeii, and one of them, August Mau, in 1882, created a system for categorizing the Pompeian pictures into a range of decorative styles. His work still provides the standard framework for the study of these ancient Roman paintings.
Vittorio Spinazzola, starting from around 1910, uncovered the Casa di Loreio Tiburtino, the Casa dell'Efebo, the Casa di Trebio Valente and Via dell'Abbondanza, which goes from west to east all along the length of the town.
He reconstructed the façades of the houses along this street with their balconies, upper floors and roofs, using a meticulous excavation technique. In doing so he demonstrated how it was possible both to understand the dynamics of how the buildings had been buried in the first place, and also what the original structure of the houses had been - thus making it possible to restore them accurately.
Monumental peristyle in the Casa del Menandro
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Spinazzola was succeeded by one of the most dynamic and controversial archaeologists in the history of the excavation of Pompeii - one Amedeo Maiuri.
Maiuri uncovered the city's walls, and found a large necropolis along its southern walls - while his excavation of the Via di Nocera allowed him also to explore Regio I and Regio II. This, however, was carried out using inaccurate methodology, with inadequate instruments, and the project suffered from chronic underfunding, so the houses were not well restored and were eventually practically abandoned.
Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii ...
Maiuri also uncovered the Casa del Menandro and Villa dei Mister, and he undertook stratigraphical research under the AD 79 level, in his search for the origins of Pompeii.
Alfonso De Franciscis became director of excavations in 1964 - his period in charge was characterised by an emphasis on the restoration of buildings that had already been uncovered. Only the magnificent Casa di Polibio was uncovered in this period.
Following him, Fausto Zevi and Giuseppina Cerulli Irelli had to work hard to resolve the problems caused in Pompeii by the earthquake of 1980. Then in 1984 Baldassare Conticello started an extensive and systematic restoration of buildings in Regio I and II, where excavation work had already been completed.
The excavation of the Complesso dei Casti Amanti was done ex novo (from scratch). The present director, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo (who started his stint in Pompeii in 1994) has had to confront many management and financial problems in order to plan the finishing of excavations and the complete restoration of the buildings. In the most recent years, excavations have been carried out outside the Porta Stabia, and also in Murecine, near the river Sarno, where the Hospitium dei Sulpici has been uncovered.
Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii, but it is even more important to restore what has already been excavated. Today 44 of the 66 hectares of urban area are visible, and it is unanimously considered that the other 22 hectares must be left under the volcanic debris, in order to preserve this important part of our past for future generations.
Scene with a centaur and a maenad from Villa di Cicerone
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The nine books of Antichità d'Ercolano Esposte by the Accademia Ercolanese (from 1757 onwards), as well as the works of Winckelmann, Francois Mazois and William Gell, informed the whole of Europe about what was being revealed as the ancient Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii were slowly being uncovered.
... a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists.
The discoveries aroused great interest, and emotion, among Enlightenment circles - and offered many new subjects for cultural debate. Slowly a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists. Painters, sculptors, jewellers, upholsterers, cabinet-makers, joiners, decorators - all made explicit reference to the findings in the towns that Vesuvius buried, and there was a constant demand for books illustrated with accurate pictures.
Many European countries, thanks to the new importance given to the ancient world, opened academies in Naples and Rome to offer hospitality to those who wanted to study the newly excavated towns. In this period the younger members of many of the noble and rich families of Europe completed their education by doing a 'grand tour' of Europe, and a visit to Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Museo Archeologico in Naples was considered an essential part of these trips.
The diaries of some of the people who made these journeys show how much influence the excavations had all over Europe, and these discoveries certainly eventually gave rise to modern archaeology, and led to the finding of many other ancient Greek and Roman towns.
The discovery of Pompeii is of huge importance for our modern-day understanding of the ancient Roman-Italic world - partly because the more public and monumental ruins left behind by Imperial Rome have often been misleading.
The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum ... offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects.
Their ruination and destruction left crucial questions unanswered, and made it impossible in many ways to gather a satisfactory understanding of the Roman world from them. Ancient Greek and Roman texts are also often obscure and enigmatic, because the ancient writers naturally took for granted, and did not explain, things that the modern reader cannot begin to guess at.
The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, by contrast, offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects. They have produced not only many treasures, but also many objects that are less precious but extremely useful for the understanding of everyday life during the years of the Roman empire. In the buildings of these towns - from the monumental to the most simple - the ancient world appears in all its complexity, with great clarity.
The same principle applies to the ancient texts of classical times. These have Rome and other big cities as their main point of reference, meaning that the history they speak of corresponds to the history of big centres and cities - while the ancient Roman world was actually made up, above all, of a great number of small towns and villages. In order to find out about the morality, culture, sense of state and religion for the vast majority of people in the Roman-Italic world, it is to Pompeii and Herculaneum that we must turn. It is here that we are most likely to find the truth about the society that made Rome 'caput mundi'.
An excavated arena at Pompeii
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Many modern visitors see Pompeii as merely a collection of ruined buildings, and find it difficult to believe that in AD 79 the streets, houses, public buildings were full of life. They don't realise that many parts of the ancient town were uncovered more than two centuries ago, and that inadequate technology and debatable methods were used in the excavations, especially when the first works were carried out.
Today the biggest danger for the old town is the increasing number of visitors ...
They don't recognise what a miracle it is that buildings that were originally erected to last for only a few decades, and that even on that basis would have required frequent upkeep, are still in existence - and able to tell us something of the life that was lived within them.
Today the biggest danger for the old town is the increasing number of visitors, who often do not understand that they are touching, creeping, walking along, an open air museum, which requires much respect and attention.
In Pompeii all is original: the tombs along the stone paved streets; the houses, with their frescoes - some with simple designs and gaudy colours, others more elegant and complex - which open onto shadowed arcades made precious by gardens in bloom and gushing fountains.
The workshops and the shops immediately suggest the busy and noisy life once so much in evidence along the streets, and the religious sanctuaries are awesome even today - with monumental columns still emphasising the sacredness of the altars. The 'Forum', when it is crowded with people, also still reflects an image of previous times - perhaps the times of various elections, when different factions confronted each other in the square or under the large portico.
It is perhaps only in Pompeii, and the other towns buried by Vesuvius, that people of today can be in such direct contact with the ancient Roman world - it is for this reason that these places leave such an unforgettable memory on the minds of imaginative visitors.
Books
Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum by A Wallace-Hadrill (Princeton University Press, 1994)
Unpeeling Pompeii edited by J Berry (Electa, 1998)
Pompeii: Guide to the Lost City by SC Nappo (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)
Dr Nappo Salvatore Ciro is an archaeologist who has been working in Pompeii for many years both in excavation work (Insulae I-14, I-22, Hospitium dei Sulpici) and in restoration work (Grande Palestra, Casa del Menandro, Casa del Citarista, Mura Meridionali). He has had many articles about Pompeii published in Italy.
(This article was translated by Enza Salerno)
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