Building on the work carried out in September 2015, the autumn field season of the research project “Bathing Culture and the Development of Urban Space: Case Study Pompeii”, running within the research framework of the TOPOI Excellence Cluster 264 of the German Research Foundation (DFG), saw renewed excavations in the Republican Baths (VIII 5, 36).

During a four-week season, most of the remaining accessible parts of the Republican Baths were excavated, wherever possible to natural levels. In addition, two trenches excavated by Maiuri in the adjacent Casa delle Pareti Rosse were reopened and, for the first time, documented in full. In total 17, trenches were excavated across the Republican Baths and in the neighboring property. Parallel to this work, the survey of standing remains and phasing of walls were completed. The geo-referenced detailed ground plan was completed and all major walls documented by photogrammetry. Key parts of the site, including the well, were documented digitally by means of structure from motion modelling and the water management and use patterns of the baths studied in detail.

Pending analysis of the excavated materials, it is now possible to understand the development and history of use of the plot at VIII 5, 36 from c. 7000 BC to the end of Pompeii as fully as the site allows. In additional, several functional aspects of the baths, changes in their construction and use of the site as a private building in the 1st century AD are now understood in more detail:

While the stratigraphic sequence could be traced back to the Mercato eruption of Vesuvius, the earliest traces of human activity, in the shape of isolated sherds, date back to the Bronze age. More regular use of the area can be traced to the Iron Age, for which occupation evidence in the form of isolated postholes and a hearth could be identified. Before the mid-2nd century BC, the site was used for some form of industrial activity as indicated by several water features and dumps of fuel ash. The baths themselves were not constructed until the middle or latter half of the 2nd century BC and underwent several modifications until there abandonment and demolition in the late 1st century BC. The area then became part of the Casa della Calce and was used as a garden surrounded by porticoes and rooms. In the last period of use, probably post-dating the earthquake of AD 62, several large quarry pits were dug across the site, some of which were refilled with building waste once they were no longer used.