Summary (English)
In June and July of 2017, the Via Consolare Project continued stratigraphic excavations in the area of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico as a part of its on-going research into the chronology, urban development, and utilization of the properties along the Via Consolare, from Pompeii’s surburbium to its forum. Two trenches from 2016 were reopened and brought to conclusion, while two further subsurface investigations were undertaken to establish the extent of previous excavation in the area and to clarify features that had only been published cursorily.
The first reopened trench (AA012) included as much as possible of a room adjoining to the western cryptoporticus that had been uncovered in the previous season. This room similarly was filled with eruption debris that had only been partially explored during the initial excavations. Further excavation in this area produced a further 18 stratigraphic units, revealing that during the final years of the city, the lower storey of this space had been filled from top to bottom with complete and largely complete fragments of amphorae and other pottery, putting it entirely out of use. Thereafter, a cistern head and drain were built at the level of the first floor, the latter draining into the former lower storey of the cryptoporticus of the Villa situated to its east. Such dramatic alterations served to transform the nature of these areas, and are analogous to the changes that took place within the cryptoporticus that were described in the Scheda of 2016. It is likely that they were motivated by damage caused by the earthquake(s) of 62/3 CE.
The second reopened trench (AA013) reached deeper levels of deposits uncovered in 2016 and served to connect these activities with the northern-most tomb in the area (tomb 6). A series of thick, extremely hard-packed deposits were likely related to this tomb’s construction and later modification since they were filled with chips of Nocera tuff from the tomb itself. The remaining tombs in the area (7, 8, and 9) were also confirmed to date from the final years of the site, while the municipal-scale trench recovered last year remained enigmatic.
The two new trenches, undertaken in the centre of the viridarium (AA014) and within the decorated fauces (N.12) (AA015), provided a window onto the degree of previous modern sub-surface excavation that the Villa has experienced – first in the search for Oscan/Samnite graves and subsequently for the removal of the mosaic columns themselves. Such explorations appear to have removed a massive layer of ancient fills, even undermining drains and other features. Nevertheless traces of a thick ancient fill that served to raise the elevation of the Villa in these areas and to bury the earlier cemetery was recovered. A deposit of ash and pigment recovered below this might have related to activities intended to ritually put the area out of use. It was also confirmed that the expansion of the Villa into these areas was a late phenomenon.
Overall, excavation in 2017 has produced valuable new data on the development of the Villa, its chronology, and the changing sub-urban environment during the final years of the city.
- Michael A. Anderson - San Francisco State University  
Director
- Michael A. Anderson - San Francisco State University
Team
- Caitlin Callahan – University of Reading
- Clare O’Bryen – Northern Archaeology Consultancies Pty Ltd
- Fabio Galeandro – Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei
- Claire J. Weiss - University of Virginia
- Erin Pitt – University of California, Berkeley
- Charlene Murphy – University College London
- Hugues-Alexandre Blain – Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona
- Robyn Veal – University of Cambridge
- Richard Hobbs – The British Museum
- Rebekka Valke – University of London
- Vincenzo Sabini – Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei
Research Body
- San Francisco State University
Funding Body
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