Pompeii and Herculaneum: Geography and Vesuvius

Campania's Geography and Natural Features

• Coastal region with sea access facilitates trade and resource use.
• The area's volcanic environment made the soil fertile.
• This area was prime growing conditions for grapes.
• The River Sarno provided water.
• A popular resort destination given these features.
• Relied on written accounts, frescoes, and agricultural remnants (including animal, plant, and sewage systems).

Impact of the 79 AD Eruption on Pompeii and Herculaneum

• Evidence found in the earth's layers through stratigraphy.
• Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1631, killing 4,000 & unearthing Pompeii /Herculaneum.
• Pliny the Younger wrote a first-hand account of the eruption, describing his uncle Pliny the Elder's voyage.
• Pliny witnessed the eruption from Misenum and mentioned frequent tremors.
• The eruption ended Pompeii's conflicts with Rome, removing a rival.
• Roman oversight in Pompeii was limited, allowing the people to maintain their language/culture without the rights as Roman citizens.
• March 90 BCE: Pompeii joined other Samnite towns in an Italian uprising, demanding full Roman rights but the Roman army overtook them, causing Pompeii to lose all independence.

Early Excavations (19th/20th centuries)

• Bits of discoveries ornamented homes.
• Charles VII and Rocque Joachim de Alcubierre began excavations at Herculaneum in 1734.
• They dug 20 meters into volcanic rubble using torchlight, sometimes risking suffocation.
• They tunneled through house walls, destroying artifacts; the best finds were set aside for the king, and common items were discarded, with holes filled.
• Karl Weber was appointed by Charles VII in 1750, believing the excavation site should be systematic/documented.
• Weber uncovered the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, discovering 1800 carbonized scrolls..
• Fiorelli divided Pompeii into 9 regions, numbering insulae and buildings for precise location of finds.
• Excavation provided a better overall picture, working methodically room by room and prevented collapse systematically,
• Improved artifact timeline, and reduced site destruction.
• Published findings allowed historians access and allowed for academic debate/study
• There was a shift from treasure seeking to academic excavation.
• Spinazzola excavated half of Via dell'Abbondanza, reconstructing facades and streetscapes to give visitors a "snapshot" of Pompeii.
• The reconstructions looked unsubstantial and upper stories are often incorrect, which altered the concepts of streetscape.
• Maiuri (1924-1961) brought Pompeii to life and increased public interest.
• He did extensive excavations that decayed, revealing Villa of Mysteries, instantly famous.
• He Studied eruption deposit layers, pre-Roman occupation, and was responsible for Herculaneum.
• Guzzo (1995 +) negotiated keeping funds from the site to $9 million, using the funds for site maintenance.
• Zevi focused on conservation, halting excavations to protect excavated/unexcavated areas, took over 1800 pictures and prevented theft/repaired poorly.
• August Mau published typology of 4 painting styles as well as principal buildings and chronological dating of decorations.

Representations of Pompeii and Herculaneum

• Jakob Phillipp Hackert (1799), the official royal painter of Naples, painted romanticized, idyllic ruins of Pompeii.
• Francois Mazois (1812), an architect/artist, created 454 paintings which attempted to document his observations, although overshadowed his observations with his romantic style.

Economy, Trade/Commerce, and Occupations in Pompeii/Herculaneum

Herculaneum

• A slower paced resort town involved with fishing and craftsmanship.
• After earthquake in AD62, there was more demand for bricks.
• Prostitution occurred, though there's little brothel evidence.

Pompeii

• A bustling center of commerce provided private shops, bars, and inns.
• Markets were setup around the forum.
• 20 or so maritime warehouses.
• Paintings of cargo vessels on the Sarno were a theme.
• images of Mercury: patron god of commerce in the city.
• Wine/oil production were an integral part of the society.
• Agriculture was the most respectable way of earning a living.
• Land ownership translated to status, along with a pottering industry spawning from storing goods/wines.
• The wealthy owned vineyards, estates, and profits.
• Estates were maintained not by owners but by hired help and trusted dependents.
• Had rooms for pressing grapes (torcularia) and fermentation (cellae vinariae) with massive capacities measured in the thousands of liters.
• Several varieties of wines and olive oils were produced in the same places as wines.
• Garum (fish sauce) was produced for Roman cuisine, with foul factories which meant the it was probably manufactured outside the city walls.
• Fishermen sold catches in markets and some garum makers directly sourced their fish.
• Salt plants existed and wool was key.
• Dyeing of wool, washing/creation of fabric and cloth occurred.
• Cloth manufacture took place at an officina and sold to cloth merchants.
• Fulleries or laundries were stephanopoulos businesses.
• Bakeries offered different bread types that go hard and deteriorate quickly.
• Most bakeries distributed to differing shops, few had adjoining shops for personal bread sales.
• Trades like carpenters, plumbers, wheelwrights, tanners, tinkers, and ironmongers occurred.
• Crafts such as goldsmith/silversmithing, marble work, stone masonry, gem cutting, alongside glass making were common.
• Prostitution was part of normal life as 26 brothels were found. OPlenty emeralds found in Oplontis cave not native to Pompeii, suggests trade with Egypt.
• Other forms of trade include wine, olive oil, fulleries, prostitution, blacksmiths, gem cutters, tanners, and tinkers.

Social Structure in Pompeii

• Senatorial Elite: Visited the area.
• Marcus Nonius Balbus (indicated by 10 statues erected for Marcus, Julius Caesar's father in law lived near Herculaneum).
• Local Elite: Free Born males & hierarchy of wealth.
• This includes right to vote locally/in Rome and houses (leaders of the society, large house owners with a Patron/client relationship, theater seating and inscriptions/graffiti).
• Women: Could own proper and rent it out and held in high esteem (building for Eumachia and Graffiti referencing them shows this) like priestesses; could not vote.
• Women Slaves: They don't get to marry and had wide range of duites (indicated by skeleton).
• Foreign Women: They sell luxury items and get involved in trades (indicated by graffiti referencing them).
• Prostitutes: Part of normal like and work in brothels (26 in Pompeii).
• Beggars: Unknown/low presence (indicated by Graffiti).
• Freedman and Lower Class Women: Slaves freed, maintained links with masters, women went into partnership with husbands.

Local Political life

• The political system was modeled on Republican Rome.
• They had a Political and Democratic System.

Magistrates

• Elected for one-year terms.
• Commanded council w/ all previous magistrates.

Councilors

• Made up of freeborn males.
• Life appointment with unknown minimum land requirement and a reputable character.
• They held respectable jobs (not actors/gladiators/executioners).
• They had the best seats in Amphitheater/theaters and controlled finance/religion and controlled forum/Streets of tombs and implemented weights and measures.

Aediles

• Two aediles appointed each year, starting July 1.
• Began beside magistrates.
• "Junior magistrates" in charge of streets, sacred places & buildings.

Duumvirs

• Two duumvirs appointed in election each year, starting July 1.
• Began by magistrates (senior magistrates and Aedile position prerequisite).
• Oversaw council and decrees passed by the council.

Housing

• Type I: one to 2 rooms, residence/shop.
• Type II: 2-7 rooms, workshop/living space.
• Type III: 8-13 rooms, public/private spaces.
• Type IV: Largest houses, entertainment, remodeled smaller houses, slave quarters.

Housing Terminology

• Fauces: entrance corridor.
• Vestibulum: entrance hall.
• Atrium: reception area with compluvium and impluvium.
• Compluvium: roof opening for light/rain.
• Impluvium: pool collecting rain from compluvium.
• Tablinum: room for clients/business.
• Peristyle: colonnade around courtyard/garden.
• Cubiculum: small bedroom.
• Triclinium: dining room with couches.
• Lararium: family shrine for lares spirits.

Limitations

• Difficult to determine function.
• Size doesn't equal status and hard to know family #.
• Wallace-Hadrill noted "interlocking jigsaw" of house sizes, while Vitruvius said magnifence should reflect on the entry way. Flimsy houses meant boom in population.
• Earliest houses lacked compluvium (opening) and peristyles brought light (some homes three).

Leisure Activities

• Athletics: palestra.
• Drinking and gambling existed and there were spectator sports such as blood events with gladiators/hunts inscribed for Aedile of Certus.

Food and Dining

• Cereal: barley, millet, wheat.
• Pulses: peas, beans, lentils.
• Meats: sheep, goat, poultry and game birds and seafood like fish and scallops including garum.
• Nuts and seeds: walnuts and poppyseeds.
• Vegetables: onion, cabbage, garlic and turnips.
• Fruit: figs, prunes, pears and pomegranate.

Clothing

• Very little survives and reliability in frescoes is questionable.
• Commisioned art for upper class folks and idealized very little day to day life, account for tyle changes:
• Males wore knee wool tunics with belts, and only citizens wore togas but women wore full length tunics. Married wore sleeveless stola and cloak (palla).

Health

• Evidence of dental and age issues and not good with open wounds.
• Twins cellar Oplontis syphilis (not to Europe til Columbus).

Baths

• They served as a social occasion and wellbeing for body/spirit in Stabian's, Forum or Central constructions as well as Sarno areas. They occur in Herculaneum as well.
• They had separate sections /hours for men and women.

Layout

• Vestibule (exercise), apodyterium (changing).
• Frigidarium: Cold bath and Tepidarium: Transition, laconicum: sweat.
• Caldarium: hot room with alverus bath, labrum cold

Suburban Bathhouse

• Financed by Marcus Nonius Balbus which faced sea in vestibule of 4 red columns/Apollo, plus back room sex Lively!
• Open day/night offering snacks,reading, and sexual activities.

Water Supply and Sanitation

• Covered aqueducts/arches to maintain and carry running water.
• Castellum Aquae (high points) empties into 3 tanks, private residences, and baths.

Religion

Capitoline Triad

• Consisted of Juno (Hera), Jupiter (Zeus), and Minerva (Athena), celebrated with games on the first of september.
• A Rome-based temple mirrored Rome's authority in Pompeii.

Hercules, Apollo, Venus, and Mercury

• Hercules (Greek Herakles) was the regarded founder with sailor popularity (Images and statues of him in peristyle of Deer house)
• Apollo (emerged in the Bth BCE; rebuilt int eh Bnd ) had roman rulers backing them.
• Venus was thought to be born into water by Nymph and was patron goddess worship with sailors and graffti sabotage around candidates.
• Mercury was the of commerce god and messenger.

Household Guard

• Lares: protector and Lararium youth
• Penates: store and house recess
• Genius: forced/spirits
• Vesta: Goddess, altars
• Money/commerce patron

Death and Burial

• Few, but people who were in cults (tomb lines on streets/city)

Archaeology and Interpretation

• Plaster casts can preserve soft positioning or reveal manner of death, for 41 samples half were pugilist exposed, as well as cadaveric, as muscle coagulates.
• Skeletons - Don't pose excavated same poses, but no scientific analysis.
• DNA can link groups or reveal inherited sex diseases (2%).

Changing Archaeological Methods and Interpretations

• 9th century and early 20th-century: systematic approach excavation (examples - Giuseppe Fiorelli uniform numbering from 1860 til Victorrio with Pompeii and Amedeo massive
• New techs were built by:
  • Italian with 18k pic, but only 20% revealed with 1980 docs. from Germany who investigate and salve two houses w / art w. -
  • German Archaeologists salvaging art with new techs to make a high definition.
    • Herculaneum team to halt groundwater problems and fix sewage, uncovering.

Conservation Issues

• Basic issues of conservation and reconstruction involve environmental: Sun bleaching, rain, damp.

Ethical

• ethical issues includes Viewers, Romans with their death, customs. and italian scientist traditions.

Ethics of Display

• Museums accepted til 20ths, that's coming under scrutiny over indigenous Australian wants back the bone ,
• The casts provide info and circumstance.

Tourism impact

• Involves money for interest, but breaks down vandalism and theft.
• New solutions are required.