Field work in Insula V 1 in 2011

The fieldwork 2011 took place from start of September till middle of October. There were two main interests for this campaign. The first one was to continue with the documentation and study of the tabernae and smaller entities in the Insula V 1. The second one was a testing of a laser 3 – D scanning in different kinds of rooms in two of the larger houses.

The documentation and study of the tabernae and other smaller entities in the Insula V 1 concerned some of the entities opening up to either of the two city arteries running along the Insula, i.e. the via di Vesuvio and the via di Nola. Both the walls and the floors of V 1,1.32, V 1,2, V 1,8, V 1,17, V 1,19, V 1,29 were thoroughly studied and documented. Besides the important documentation, the aims were also to investigate the functions of the different entities and their relations to the larger houses dominating the Insula. Thus both in V 1,8 and in V 1,17 remains of constructed working structures were uncovered, which clearly hints towards some kind of productive activity in these entities, where as for example in v 1,19 and V 1,29 no such remains or even indications for them could be observed. This could indicate, that these entities were used for selling goods, that had been produced elsewhere or that possible structures were constructed of non – durable materials. Concerning the relationships, not only doors or upper floors were used as indicators, but also the joint use of water and waste water installations were studied.

For the analysis of the relationships between smaller entities and the dominant houses remains of upper floors and doorways were studied with the aim to determine whether these entities had communicated between themselves. This could then determine a plausible joint ownership in accordance with our knowledge of rules for parceling in the ancient Roman world. A further plausible indicator for close relations could be established through the study of the joint using of water resources. It could be observed in several entities that pure overflow water was led further to other entities, where it was stores in cisterns.

The laser scanning was made for several reasons: to test the method in itself, to test the capacity of the equipment in the different scaled Pompeian rooms and to provide our project with the ground material for 3 – D models, both of the actual state and as virtual models of some of the houses. This work was carried out as cooperation between scholars from the Lund University Humanities Lab and from the Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo” at Pisa. The speed of the work exceeded our expectations by far, so that the entire houses V 1,23,26 (House of Caecilius Iucundus) and V 1,7 (House of the bronze Bull), 45 rooms in total together with the appending tabernae, facades and street rooms, could be documented in that way during one week of field work.