In 2015, a new research project under the direction of Monika Trümper, “Bathing Culture and the Development of Urban Space: Case Study Pompeii”, was initiated within the research framework of the TOPOI Excellence Cluster 264 of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project is a research collaboration between the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Oxford. Overall, it investigates various aspects of the development of bathing culture within the historic context of urban development of the city of Pompeii. A particular focus lies on the study of the development of baths and bathing in the late Republican period and the transition from Greek to Roman bathing traditions. In this, bathing culture is seen as a reflection of cultural identity and therefore contributing factor to current research on the urbanistic development of Pompeii between the Archaic and Samnite periods. On the ground, investigations are centered on two key structures in this respect, the Republican Baths (VIII 5, 36) and the Stabian Baths (VII 1, 8). Aside from initial superficial excavations under Sogliano in 1882, the first systematic investigations of the Republican Baths were carried out under Amedeo Maiuri in 1950. Following this research, the building remained largely forgotten for several decades – it was only in recent years that Fabrizio Pesando suggested a more refined chronological interpretation based on observations of the standing, albeit heavily covered by vegetation and therefore largely obscured, remains. This latest understanding of the development of the site, however, remains to be tested against reliable archaeological data and the stratigraphic sequence in particular. Two field seasons were conducted in 2015. In March, the Republican Baths were returned to the state left by the Maiuri excavations in 1950 by cleaning of surface material and vegetation. At the same time, a georeferenced plan of the entire area, including all earlier and later remains, was created in order to provide a basis for further study and identification of developmental phases of the area. In September 2015, first stratigraphic excavations in the southern parts of the Republican Baths were carried out. Three separate areas were targeted: area I – the SE part of the baths; area II/1 – the laconicum; area II/2 – the corridor running along the S face of the laconicum; area III – the praefurnium (Fig. 1). All excavated areas had been affected by trenches dug by Maiuri, resulting in incomplete or disturbed stratigraphic sequences. Nonetheless, it was possible to identify and reconstruct a substantial overall Matrix of contexts reaching from the Bronze Age through to 79AD. While most data remains preliminary at present and requires further analysis, some interesting observations can already be made: the laconicum (identified as room 30) appears to have been constructed by the 2nd century BC, probably during its the earliest years. It underwent a major phase of reconstruction from an initially rectangular space to its current rounded interior shape. This is likely also to have occurred during the 2nd century BC. A further phase of rebuilding and modification dates to the 1st century BC. The development of the various identified phases of the praefurnium (identified as room 17) remains far more problematic: created originally as a rectangular space with six heating ducts for the two sets of caldaria and immersion pools, it was repeatedly modified, reduced in extent and reconstructed in order to modify heat flow and firing accessibility, as well as in response to the changing needs of the modified baths complex as a whole in its various phases.

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.

In March and April 2019, a field season of the project “Bathing Culture and the Development of Urban Space: Case Study Pompeii”, was carried out in the Republican Baths (VIII 5, 36) at Pompeii. The season was focused on studying the finds and cleaning some areas to clarify specific questions. The ceramics team completed the study of the material from the Republican Baths. Cleaning served to clarify two major questions: first, characteristics and function of certain water management features, which Thomas Heide investigates for his dissertation at the Freie Universität Berlin. Cleaning included: a double drainage hole in the southwestern corner of the men’s tepidarium; a large, deep settling basin in the southeastern corner of the men’s apodyterium; and the part of the baths’ drainage channel that is located in taberna 35 of the Casa della Calce (VIII, 5, 28). Second, the design and development of the southwestern corner of the baths, which Maiuri had excavated but barely mentioned in his report from 1950, were investigated. The chronology of the southwestern room of the baths (room 34, numbering system of project) could be clarified, correlating well with the development of the entire lot, as established in previous seasons: 1) service corridor with entrance from the street for the baths (c. 150-30/20 BC); 2) room decorated with Second Style wall paintings, accessible only from the new garden peristyle of the Casa della Calce (30/20 BC); 3) installation of a latrine along the south wall of the room, when the garden peristyle was remodeled and provided with more rooms (sometime between 30/20 BC and AD 62); 4)room used as a dump site for debris after AD 62. In the room to the north of this room (room 26, numbering system of project) a limekiln, which Maiuri had excavated but not identified and described, was rediscovered. This limekiln was installed for one of the remodeling phases in the early Imperial period, but destroyed already before the eruption of Vesuvius and filled with debris.