Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Italy

The excavations officially started in 1748 under the King of Naples, Charles III of Bourbon, and continued systematically throughout the 19th century. Giuseppe Fiorelli, in 1863, made the first casts of the victims, introduced ticketing to enter the excavations and divided the city into regiones (neighbourhoods) and insulae (blocks).

During the second decade of the 20th century, Spinazzola excavated Via dell’Abbondanza with new techniques that permitted the preservation of the second floors of the buildings. From 1924 to 1961 the excavations were supervised by Amedeo Maiuri, who oversaw a period of intense activity that included the discovery of prestigious buildings, such as the Villa of Mysteries and the House of the Menander. The city was hit by 150 bombs in 1943 during the Second World War, leading to serious damage to the Antiquarium and many houses.

In 2017 new excavations began to mitigate the hydro-geological risks bringing to light new wealthy houses.

Most of the urban area in Pompeii consisted of private households so it provides an excellent starting point to learn more about Roman housing. The upper classes mainly lived in domus, large houses based on the same plan with a front door leading into the atrium, a large central hall open at the roof. 

From the 2nd century BC, due to the increasing Hellenistic influence, the number of rooms increased and a porch formed by a row of columns (peristyle) was built.

Theatrical performances were a form of popular entertainment that took place in the Grand Theatre built in the second century BC. Comedies and rustic farces were performed there, while mimed re-enactments were housed in the Odeion which was an additional venue for musical entertainment.

Pompeii provides an unparalleled record of daily life in the Roman Empire. The eruption was so sudden it immediately halted the life of the city. 

Transport containers tell us that the Pompeians imported goods from all over the Mediterranean: wine from Crete, Greece and Turkey, fish sauces from Spain, oil from Africa.

The Temple of Jupiter was the main temple of the city with three cult statues of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, visible to whoever passed in the Forum square. 

The Sanctuary of Apollo is one of the oldest places of worship in Pompeii, built in a strategic point next to the public heart of the city. 

In Pompeii the Egyptian cults were also very popular, as highlighted by the Temple of Isis, built on a high podium at the centre of a courtyard with a staircase that leads to the basin from which water was drawn for the offerings, which was said to derive directly from the Nile. 

Pompeii had many baths: The Forum baths, the Stabian baths, the Central baths and the Suburban ones. These buildings offered hot baths, swimming pools, saunas and open spaces with porches.

Men and women usually had separate sections; apart for the more modern Central baths and Suburban baths there was no separation between women and men. Usually they had an apodyterium (dressing room) used also as a tepidarium (for medium temperature baths), a frigidarium (for cold baths) and calidarium (for hot baths). The heating was guaranteed by a piping system in the walls and double floors and from mobile braziers.

The inscriptions on the walls give us information about electoral campaigns!
The names of the candidates are painted in large red and black letters on the walls along the streets, with slogans or promises to administrate the city well if elected. Candidates sought the support of the ‘power brokers’, of the trade guilds, and of the inhabitants of the wards in the city, in a play of exchanges and favours that involved the whole town. The inscriptions were the work of professional writers, who preferred to work at night and sometimes signed their handiwork.

Outside the city, in the countryside and along the coasts, there were many different villas. Some, like the Villa of Oplontis, were built on artificial terraces overlooking the sea and offering a panoramic view. It boasted magnificent décor, some exceptional traces of which are still preserved today.

More often, however, the same villa fulfilled both purposes: rich residential quarters coexisted with large areas dedicated to agricultural production, like the Villa of the Mysteries.