Season Director

• AIAC_822 - Area B Sud Porta Nocera - 2011
  On September of 2008 we have continued with the investigation of the sepulchral area of the _gens Calventii_. A brief and limited excavation by the north-east side – preliminary defined as the _ustrinum_ - has been done in order to confirm the function of this area in the funeral ritual. By the very north-east angle where the concentration of charcoal is most extreme, the following fragments of pottery have been found: 1. Handle of tableware cup or jug from between 30 B.C. and 40 A.C. with decoration lines, usually found in funeral contexts and often produced for funeral usage. 2. Fragment of a base of black burnished tableware plate from the Republican period, before 30 B.C. 3. Fragment of a base of a relatively large vessel 4. Fragment of amphorae 5. Fragment of a base of a red burnished cooking plate (to bake bread and cook beans), probably from the Republican period. Also small remains of, presumably, textile from a coin were removed in order to analyze them at the Ångström Laboratory at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. It was not possible to identify these remains because of the very small amounts, but they were not textile. About twenty liters of soil was sampled from the north-east side of the sepulchral area in order to analyze at the University of Oxford, UK (Prof. Mark Robinson). This analysis has been performed until now, 2011. It has been possible to identify fragments of ivory or (most probably) decorated bones, probably belonging to a funerary couch. The presence of a funerary couch in this area at the north-east side of the sepulchral area confirms our preliminary hypothesis that this zone was originally the _ustrinum_ where the bodies used to be cremated. The very proximity to the sepulchral area A sud Porta Nocera indicates that this _ustrinum_ could have been shared by both families. In 2011 and 2012 we continue with the analysis and investigation of the pigments from the columellae gravestones at the sepulchral area of _Calventii_ and further excavation and analysis of soil samples. It will give us a better understanding about the funerary rituals of _columellae_ gravestones in Pompeii.