Season Team

• AIAC_2737 - Insula V, 1 - 2010
  The aim of our project is to document and study _Insula_ V 1 bordering against two of the most important arteries of the town. To broaden the accessibility of our work, the intension is to publish all the material in an open access base accessed through the project’s web-site: pompejiprojektet.se/insula.php. Mainly through the study of the standing structures, we have been able to establish the chronological framework for the development of the block. The material record reveals that in _Insula_ 1, the step from sporadic building to comprehensive urban construction occurred in the middle of the 2nd century BC. Investigation of the architectural remains indicates that urbanization advanced from the south towards north, beginning with the property facing Via di Nola. Later development in the block shows a merging of properties into larger houses as well as an increased number of shops. This growth seems to have gone hand-in-hand with municipal innovations and improvements in the infrastructure from 80 BC and forth: the stone paving of Via Vesuvio and the aqueduct. Traces of the earthquake in AD 62 vary from property to property. They are seen most clearly in the _Casa di Caecilius Iucundus_, which provided several exceptional finds (found in 1875), for example, the famous shop archives whose entries stop in just that year, and the altar relief which shows damaged architecture in Pompeii\'s forum. The large area under investigation in the project permits us to employ an approach based on quantitative and comparative study, which in turn allow us both to use and to take directions beyond the traditional methods in Pompeian research, namely, chronology, decoration and architectural history. One important result is the discovery of material evidence that permits us to follow social dependencies through time. Another concerns the relationship between the nature of private space and the expansion of the municipal infrastructures such as streets and water distribution. Knowledge gained from our work in the northern part of the block allowed us to direct the investigations towards specific results in the southern part. In the original urbanization phase a series of different types of domestic buildings was erected here: a large house, a smaller one and several shops. They were all constructed on the same foundation and should thus be seen as a part of the same initiative. The system of water pipes was laid much later but the fact that it was shared by the buildings indicates a continued communalism over time. Excess water from the fountains and pools of the stately dwelling were recycled to neighboring workshops. In the town’s last period the full row of shops and workshops was given a thorough modernization, including well-built sanitary installations in some. The find of early Bronze Age levels and a contemporaneous ash layer witnessing a volcanic eruption was the unexpected outcome of the clearing of a well. It was followed by a deep dig into Vicolo delle Nozze d’Argento.
• AIAC_822 - Area B Sud Porta Nocera - 2006
  L’obiettivo principale del progetto è quello di gettare luce sulle condizioni religiose e sociali degli abitanti di Pompei attraverso l’indagine di aree sepolcrali e necropoli. Una parte centrale del progetto è l’indagine sistematica delle stele funerarie denominate _columellae_. La parte iniziale della ricerca è limitata all’area sepolcrale della _gens Calventia_ (Area B Sud Porta di Nocera). Tale spazio è composto da un’area rettangolare (3.40 x 4.34) recante esclusivamente _columellae_, al contrario delle altre aree sepolcrali di Pompei, dove le _columellae_ sono rinvenute in combinazione con altri tipi di tombe in un più complesso contesto architettonico e le più tarde lastre sepolcrali sono collocate secondo un’inusuale forma a ∩ che ipoteticamente potrebbe indicare un ritorno a più antiche pratiche rituali. La ricerca iniziale del 2005 nell’area sepolcrale è consistita in un’analisi autoptica delle _colummellae_ di questa specifica area sepolcrale, nell’estrazione e analisi preliminare di possibili pigmenti da 17 _colummellae_ e nello scavo limitato a cinque saggi, uno dei quali riferibili ad un possibile _ustrinum_. La scoperta più rilevante è che le _columellae_ originariamente erano dipinte; lo si desume dal fatto che i campioni prelevati da 17 lastre hanno rivelato presenza di pigmenti. Grazie all’analisi dei pigmenti, alla ricognizione di superficie e allo scavo di un’area limitata ci si sta concentrando su tre diversi aspetti tutti di uguale importanza: a) la dimensione iconografica delle _columellae_, b) lo spazio rituale delle _columellae_ e c) i rapporti di continuità e trasformazione nei rituali funerari. (Mónica Saldías)
• 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.