VeLoCi's on-site explorations are back, this time from Pompeii

: Published: 27 November 2024

VeLoCi's new season of exploration restarts from Pompeii.

To visit the archaeological site, afflicted by overtourism almost the whole year round, the Research Team has been waiting until the autumnal season, and the choice of a rainy midweek day was gratifying, since the ancient city was almost entirely to ourselves!

Our tour started from Porta Marina, walking along the left side of the Suburban Baths up to the prehistoric lava plateau about 40 m high overlooking the mouth of the Sarno River, which was navigable at the time, on top of which the city stands. We continued through the Forum with the Temple of Jupiter on its high podium and then headed northwest to the Porta Ercolano, with a stop at the Casa del Fauno, with millstones and an oven. Leaving the city we observed the walls, visited the necropolis along the extra-urban part of the route and the suburban villa of Diomede, on a terrace overlooking the porticoed garden below, and that of the Misteri, on a sea-view base leaning against the steep slope. It was on this side that the first 18th-century Bourbon excavations were begun.

Back towards the Forum, we visited the Casa del Fauno on Via della Fortuna, which, covering some 3,000 square metres, is one of the largest and most splendid Hellenistic houses in the city, and turned onto Via di Nola to observe the boundaries between excavated and non-excavated regiones (in particular the IV and IX) and to get a clearer view of the levels between the present-day countryside and the ancient city. Unlike Herculaneum where the level was raised about 20 metres by a compact layer resembling a tuffaceous bank, Pompeii was indeed only covered by a layer of about 6 metres of ash and lapilli, that is, about the height of a two-storey building; the upper parts were therefore destroyed over time or remained exposed. Retracing our steps, after visiting the Casa di Marco Lucrezio Frontone, an elegant early imperial residence right on the edge of the excavations, and the never-completed Central Baths, we continued south along the Via Stabiana (cardo maximus) until we reached the junction with Via dell'Abbondanza, which we then walked eastwards.

Here two stops were of fundamental interest for our research: the top of the hill of regio IX of the recently restored late 18th-century Casina dell'Aquila, and the ongoing construction site of the new adjacent excavations thanks to the raised walkways recently made accessible to the public. From the Casina it is possible to get a clear view of the ground level and a view of the ancient city below with the Lattari mountains in the background, while from the open building site we were able to observe live, as if we were back in the 18th century, the workers removing the lapilli and pumice with shovel and wheelbarrow, bringing to light the remains of a dwelling.

We then continued in an easterly direction, stopping at the Fullonica of Stephanus, a typical example of a house converted into a workshop on the ground floor, to get to Via di Nocera (Nola and Nocera were the main inland centres with which Pompeii was in contact, in addition to Stabia on the coast), which we walked as far as Porta Nocera, to take a closer look at the canal built by Domenico Fontana between 1594 and 1600. Designed to channel the Sarno River's waters to Torre Annunziata, the canal is marked by a mid-20th-century plaque commemorating the city's first, “overlooked,” excavations. Near the Porta we visited the Casa del Triclinio all’aperto and the Osteria del Gladiatore with their wine gardens and a magnificent nymphaeum in the former. Leaving the gate we walked through the necropolis of Porta Nocera, at the base of the city's plateau and composed of mostly tombs of liberti, before heading eastwards to the vast Palestra Grande, porticoed on three sides, overlooked by plane trees and with a grandiose central pool, and the Anfiteatro, among the oldest surviving ones.

On our way back, we walked along Via di Castricio until we reached the Hellenistic theatre, next to the Temple of Isis, not without first visiting the Casa del Menandro. At the eastern entrance to the cavea, we observed the architect's signature on a plaque (a copy) placed on the exterior wall. Once we reached the Forum again, we entered the great Basilica before concluding our visit back at Porta Marina.

Our on-site inspections will continue. Stay tuned!