Survey: Early Discoveries and Changing Nature of Excavations

Question 1

79 AD

Answer 1

Mt Vesuvius erupts, witnessed by Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, who would go on to write letters 25 years later, the only first-hand witness account.

Question 2

203-1944 AD

Answer 2

Mt Vesuvius erupts at intervals with varying severity, but never as large as the one that destroyed Pompeii.

Question 3

1592 AD

Answer 3

Roman architect, Domenico Fontana, finds ancient stones and recovers frescoes among other artefacts while directing a civil engineering project to redirect the Sarno River.

Question 4

1689 AD

Answer 4

Francesco Pichetti uncovered a stone inscribed ‘Decurio Pompeiis’, which he believed referred to the Roman general, Pompey the Great.

Question 5

1699 AD

Answer 5

Giuseppe Macrini publishes De Vesuvio that states that Pompeii lies beneath Civitas, but was laughed at.

Question 6

1709-1710 AD

Answer 6

Count D’Elbeuf

Contributions

• Credited for discovering the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum
• Used statues and inscriptions as decorations in his house
• Sunk a shaft that reached the ancient level at the rear of the stage of the theatre
• Gatekept artefacts by keeping them secret in his home

Question 7

Alison E. Cooley, Pompeii

Historian Perspective

Answer 7

“The aim of the excavations was not primarily to gain knowledge about the past, but to gain prestige for the present, and it is this that overwhelmingly influenced the progress of the excavations throughout the rest of the 18th century.”

Question 8

1709

Answer 8

Rocque Joaqin de Alcubierre
- Military engineer in the Spanish army

Contributions
- Dug a series oftunnels underneath and through Herculaneum
- Kept artefacts secret for personal gain
- Discovered architectural remains at Pompeii and Herculaneum

Question 9

1748-1749 AD

Answer 9

Karl Weber
- Swiss architect and engineer who believed in the importance of documentation
- He had a weird rivalry with Alcubierre who was solidly anti-organisation

Contributions
- Led the first oganised excavations at Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae
- Excavated Villa dei Papyri by smashing through frescoed walls, destroying frescoes which could have been used as historical sources
- Recovered much of the theatre at Herculaneum
- Drew up an axonometric plan of the Praedia of Julia Felix on the via dell’Abbondanza
- Uncovered several Stabian villas

Question 10

1848-1875

Answer 10

Giuseppe Fiorelli
- Italian archaeologist
- Started excavations in 1848 but was imprisoned for radical approaches to archaeology
- Resumed archaeological enterprises from 1863-1875

Contributions
- In 1863, he introduced a new system of excavations in which houses would be uncovered top down instead of bottom up. Data collected from this system was used to restore the buildings and their interiors
- Divided the town into a system of regions, insulae, and domus
- Introduced plaster casts to make replicas or preserve the human remains
- Founded a training school so foreigners and Italians alike could learn about archaeology with a focus on Pompeii → taught August Mau

Important legacy in the archaeology of Pompeii

Question 11

1860-1885

Answer 11

August Mau
- Italian archaeologist who attended Fiorelli’s training school

Contributions
- Analysed the findings of the excavations, classifying Greek and Rmoan wall paintings into 4 main categories:
- Incrustation style (300-80 BCE): simple decorations imitated coloured marble
- Architectural style (80-10 BCE): architecturally detailed, with realistic paintings of columns and ledges in the correct perspectives. Views of sacred landscapes visible between the columns
- Ornate style (10 BCE - 60 CE): treated the flat wall as a painting rather than a window. Mythological scenes presented in an panel against a monochrome background
- Intricate style (60 CE onwards): architectural details combined with scenes painted in frames and panels within the larger architectural scheme
https://pompeiitourguide.me/2015/07/09/pompeian-styles/

Question 12

1910-1924

Answer 12

Vittorio Spinazzola

Contributions
- Excavated Pompeii street by street, including the via dell’ Abbondanza
- Found the fullery of Stephanus and the garden of Loreius Tiburtinus

Question 13

1924-1961

Answer 13

Amedeo Maiuri
- 1st president of the Italian Numismatic Institute
- Received patronage by Mussolini → his work was politically driven to construct Herculaneum as a “resurrected” Roman town to develop romanita, the fascist doctrine of roman-ness

Contributions:
- Used stratigraphic excavation
- Excavated below the Roman destruction level of 79CE for the first time
- Excavated the House of the Surgeon to investigate Pompeii’s earlier history
- Discovered the Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl in 1932
- Expanded tourism industry in Pompeii by adding ticket offices, gardens, and lighting

Ethical issues:
- Opening Pompeii to tourism exposed to the threat of vandalism
- Work was politically oriented

Question 14

1964-1976

Answer 14

Alfonso de Franciscis

Contributions:
- Emphasised the restoration of buildings that had already been uncovered
- Uncovered the House of C. Julius Polybius (House of the Centenary)
- Found the House of M. Favius Rufus and the Villa at Oplontis

Question 15

1984-1995

Answer 15

Baldassare Conticello

Contributions:
- Used computers to accumulate the findings from excavations across earlier centuries
- Restoration of data might have caused ethical concerns due to the fixing of the original evidence

Question 16

2014-2021

Answer 16

Massimo Osanna

Contributions
- Brought together a group of archaeologists, vulcanologists, geologists, engineers, and computer scientists to rehabilitate Pompeii, renew its public image, and provide security to artefacts and the site
- Head of State Museums in Pompeii