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Excavation

  • Casa della Regina Carolina, Regio VIII.3.14
  • Pompei
  • Pompeii
  • Italy
  • Campania
  • Naples
  • Pompei

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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 summer 2019, we excavated five 5×5m units in locations that were either adjacent to the Hellenistic-period finds uncovered in 2018 or identified in GPR survey as containing potentially significant anomalies. Immediately below the surface humus, we found the remains of the 79 CE garden surface (Figure 1 for major features from all excavated phases). Although the upper surface of the ancient garden has been heavily disturbed by modern activities since its initial exposure, many of its major features are still preserved. Beneath this garden were earlier structures, probably domestic. At least two phases of building are detectable beneath the 79 CE garden: an initial construction in the second or first century BCE (Phase 1), and a subsequent phase of rebuilding and renovation, possibly Augustan in date (Phase 2). Between these earlier structures and the later garden is a layer of earlier first-century CE fill. At some point in the first century CE, the remains of the earlier structures were covered with fill and a garden constructed. Since the latest datable material in the fill is Neronian (54–68 CE), this destruction and rebuilding may relate to the 62 CE earthquake. The owners of the first-century ‘Casa della Regina Carolina’ may have used this rebuilding as an opportunity to acquire an adjacent house plot and convert it into a large garden (Phase 3). Following initial excavations in the 19th century (Phase 5), the garden was replanted (Phase 6). Our excavations have allowed us to partly reconstruct the layout not only of the ancient garden but also of this early modern garden, whose design may in fact preserve some clues about its ancient predecessor. The identified chronological phases are:

    Phase 1, the earlier phase detected: a Republican house of the late 2nd or 1st century BC, oriented E-W with an entrance from ‘vicolo dei Dodici Dei’; two engaged columns indicate that this structure had a peristyle or semi-peristyle.

    Phase 2, 1st c. BC to AD 62: subsequent constructions and alterations before the 62 CE earthquake. A number of changes took place in this time span, but it remains unclear how many of these alterations are contemporary with each other; they include the construction of the N-S perimeter wall now visible on the W side of the garden.

    Phase 3: post- 62 CE redevelopment of the space: 62-79 AD: The thick layer of architectural rubble and pottery sherds discovered includes, as the most recent datable finds, pottery dated to the Neronian period and hence our working hypothesis that the earlier Republican house was seriously damaged in the earthquake of 62, giving the opportunity for a major redevelopment of the area. The ground level was raised by ca. 60 cm by dumping and levelling the rubble; on top of this layer, garden soil was deposited. The excavation identified a series of planting pits and root cavities.

    Phase 4: destruction by the eruption of AD 79.

    Phase 5a&b: late 18th and early 19th century excavations.

    Phase 6: early 20th century, replanting of garden: creation of rectangular garden beds with tile edging and walkways, discovered in our excavation just 1-2 cm below the surface.

    Phase 7: 1950s-1970s, use of area for cultivation. Photographs from the W. and S. Jashemski photographic archive show fruit trees and a vineyard in the garden.

  • Kathryn Gleason-Cornell U. 
  • Annalisa Marzano-U. of Reading 
  • Caitlín Barrett-Cornell U. 

Director

  • Annalisa Marzano-U. of Reading
  • Caitlín Barrett-Cornell U.
  • Kathryn Gleason-Cornell U.

Team

  • Jennifer Ramsay (The College at Brockport, State University of New York)
  • Jessica Feito (University of Reading)
  • Meredith Hood (University of Oxford)
  • Michael MacKinnon (University of Winnipeg)
  • Li Bai (Cornell University)
  • Michael Chang (Cornell University)
  • Michele Palmer (Templeton Landscape Architecture & Planning)
  • Yuhan Ji (Cornell University)
  • Selene Zacchino
  • Kathryn Gleason-Cornell U.
  • Diana Blumberg (University of Cumbria)
  • Laura Matilde Magno (Université Catholique de Louvain)
  • Larry Brown (Cornell University)
  • Divya Kumar-Dumas (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Hannah Maier (Texas A&M University
  • Jane Suhey (Cornell University)
  • Maleeha Taqi (University of Houston)
  • William Krueger (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee)
  • Simon Barker (University of Oslo)
  • Dafna Langgut (Tel Aviv University)
  • Danielle Vander Horst (Cornell University)
  • Vincenzo Castaldo (University of Edinburgh)
  • Evan Allen (Cornell University)
  • Kaja Tally-Schumacher (Cornell University)
  • Lee Graña (University of Reading)
  • Olivia Angsten (Stanford University)
  • Rachael Lane (University of Sydney)
  • Samuli Simelius (University of Helsinki)
  • Juliana Van Roggen (Cornell University)
  • Thomas Noble Howe (RAS/Southwestern University)
  • Marina Bainbridge (University of Reading), Aksel Breistrand (University of Bergen), Anna Brew (Grinnell College), Robyn Cooper (University of Otago/South Canterbury Museum), Madeline Crawford (Cornell University), Sahar Farmand (Cornell University), Grace Gibson (University of Texas, Austin), Houston Harris (Cornell University), Joshua Johnson (Cornell University), Paul Oberheim (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Kayla Peterson (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Sam Ross (University of Texas, Austin), Elizabeth Wickersham (New York University), Isaac Younglund (Cornell University)

Research Body

  • Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS), Cornell University
  • University of Reading

Funding Body

  • Cornell Department of Classics
  • Cornell Institute for European Studies
  • Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS)
  • E. Gorton Davis Traveling Fellowships, Cornell
  • Einaudi Center, Cornell
  • Hirsch Fund, Cornell
  • IMAGINE Campaign, U. of Reading
  • President’s Council of Cornell Women
  • Rust Family Foundation
  • Society for the Humanities, Cornell
  • Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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