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Excavation

  • Regio VII, insula VI and Villa delle Colonne a mosaico
  • Pompeii
  • Pompeii
  • Italy
  • Campania
  • Naples
  • Pompei

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • In June and July of 2019, the Via Consolare Project undertook stratigraphic excavations and archaeological research in both the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico and Insula VII 6 as a part of on-going research into the chronology, urban development, and utilization of the properties along the Via Consolare, from Pompeii’s periphery to its forum.

    Four trenches were excavated within the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico. The first involved two small sondages (AA019w, and AA019e) at either end of long driveway for cart access to the centre of the villa. At the entrance, levels of beaten earth were recovered with the fixtures for two different phases of doorway closure, demonstrating a change from a single door to a bi-valve system. Below these, a thick layer of silt-bonded rubble and mortar may have been the only surviving traces of a feature removed with the expansion of the villa into this area – possibly the footing of a small altar tomb. Excavations at the eastern end of the corridor revealed a substantial drain running under a later stairway. Presumably this drain connected to the drain found exiting the villa in 2015 (AA005). The deposits into which the surrounding walls were cut were identified in an additional trench (AA021) that was near to the courtyard sacellum altar. These have reinforced the conclusion that the sacellum courtyard and viridarium had been extended over an area of the site that had remained largely unoccupied after its use as an Oscan-Samnite cemetery. A final trench excavated within the eastern core of the villa (AA022) in an area thought originally to have been a bath suite, produced evidence consistent with that hypothesis. Elements of a surface or podium paved with tiles, lead piping and a drain running S-E out of the room are suggestive of its use for bathing. Changes to the area involving strengthening piers were related to the upward expansion of the villa complex, while final-phase alterations, including the excavation of a new, but unused channel possibly intended for the placement of a new lead pipe were probably intended to repair damage to the system sustained in the earthquake(s) of 62/3 CE and onwards.

    Two trenches were also undertaken in two shops at the south-western corner of Insula VII 6 (AA023, AA024). While these were not completed in 2019, traces of opus africanum in blocks of Sarno stone and pappamonte, make it clear that in the earliest phase, these shops were areas that pertained to the Casa di Petutius Quintio (VII 6, 30.37) to the north and did not open to the south. Later changes related to the creation of the shops involved the lowering of the level in the area and the creation of cisterns, drains, and toilets. Planned completion of these trenches in 2020 will undoubtedly provide more valuable information regarding the sequence and chronology of these areas of the insula.

    Excavation in 2019 has therefore served to provide important new information about these areas and their development, providing further windows on the processes of urban growth and change that influenced the structures along the Via Consolare.

  • Michael A. Anderson - San Francisco State University 

Director

Team

  • Clare Anderson – Northern Archaeology Consultancies Pty Ltd
  • Sadie Brown – Wardell Armstrong, Birmingham
  • Giuseppe Scarpati – Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei
  • Luana Toniolo – Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei
  • Charlene Murphy – University College London
  • Hugues-Alexandre Blain – Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona
  • Robyn Veal – University of Cambridge
  • Rebekka Valke – University of London
  • Richard Hobbs – The British Museum

Research Body

  • San Francisco State University

Funding Body

Images

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