Embedded Files
Chapter 12 "Changing archaeological methods and interpretations"
12.1 "The 'new' archaeology" p.183
12.2 "Reshaping the past" p.186
Chapter 13 "A model of conservation-based archaeology at Herculaneum"
13.1 "A legacy of the past" p.197
13.2 "The Herculaneum Conservation Project" p.200
In 1977, new excavations at Pompeii were suspended. However, study of the archaeological remains has continued up to the present. This is the new research, which in some cases has involved new technologies. This new research has resulted in much new knowledge about the society of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Much of this new research has aimed to fill the gaps left by inadequate recording of the original excavations, through archival research, analysis of the existing remains and excavation below the AD 79 level. The extent of deterioration of the remains can also be studied.
The body responsible for the Vesuvian sites is the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei. All new research by international organisations must be coordinated through the Soprintendenza (Superintendency). It is also responsible for all the conservation work and for managing the impact of tourism at the Vesuvian sites. The current Superintendent is Massimo Osanna.
The Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii
The Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei (or more fully, the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia) is the Italian organisation responsible for the Vesuvian sites. On its website, under Who We Are, it describes itself this way:
The Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Naples and Pompeii (SANP) is a decentralized body of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, vested with special independent status, whose sphere of competence is the preservation, conservation and public utilization of archaeological resources.
It was instituted with Presidential Decree no. 233 of 26th November 2007 and brings together the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii, which had previously been granted independent scientific, organizational and financial autonomy through Law no. 352 art. 9 of 8th October 1997, and the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples and Caserta.
The territorial scope of its competence currently encompasses the entire province of Naples and, in addition to Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvian sites, (www.pompeiisites.org), it also includes the Phlegraean area around the city of Naples, the Naples National Archaeological Museum and the Sorrento coast (http:\\sbanap.campaniabeniculturali.it).
New Research
Projects
Select TWO of the following projects and answer these questions:
Who is running the project? (Person / Organisation)
Where is the project?
What is the purpose of the project?
ASSESSMENT of the project: What has the project achieved?
Other information, e.g. when the project began; duration of the project; funding for the project
‘The Houses in Pompeii’ project
See p.188 of text (number 1)
1977 - German Archaeological Institute. Aim to investigate and record houses which had not been fully documented when first excavated. An Australian and New Zealand team under Jean-Paul Descoeudres studied the House of the Ancient Hunt and the House of the Painted Capitals from 1978 to 1986. See Pompeii Revisited in the school library.
‘The Insula of Menander’ project
See p.190 of text
A whole city block - I.10 - to be analysed and documented from 1978. First stage published in 1997 - provided new understandings and interpretations of the insula. See a review of the book here. (Volume 2 is only US$350 from Amazon)
‘The Pompeian Forum’ project
See pp.188 of text (number 3)
Begun in 1988 under John Dobbins (University of Virginia).
Anglo-American Project at Pompeii
See pp.194-5 of text
Since 1994 has been investigating VI.1. Pompeii Trust established in 2002.
See Jaye McKenzie-Clark below.
The project website and that of the Pompeii Trust no longer exist. There is still some record of the project on the web at Archaeology Magazine website:
The British School at Rome's Pompeii Project
See p.190 of text.
The BSR project aims to take a small slice of the city, a single block of houses or insula, excavated first half a century ago, yet never published, and to see what can be said about it now to cast light on the city, its history and its life. Its three main components are archival research into the original excavation of 1952-3, the artefacts then excavated, recording and analysis of the standing remains, and the excavation of levels below that sealed by the eruption of AD 79.
Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia
The Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia, an American research project, is re-writing the social and economic history of Pompeii between the 2nd century BC and its destruction in AD 79 by excavating an overlooked and under-studied middle-class neighborhood in the shadow of the great public spaces.
Other projects under the auspices of the Soprintendenza:
The Via dell'Abbondanza Project (Pompeii: A Different Perspective) See text p.188 number 4
The Swedish Pompeii Project - (See text p.188 number 6) A study by the Swedish Institute in Rome begun in 2000. The aim of the project is to "record and analyse a full Pompeian city-block, Insula V.1".
One of the houses under study in the Swedish Pompeii Project is the Casa del Torello di Bronzo (House of the Little Bull) V.i.7. Below are some photographs of the house, and of the Swedish archaeologist responsible for the study, Thomas Staub. There are also seven pages of photos of this house at Pompeii in Pictures.
Entrance from the street
Entrance from the atrium
Marble impluvium in the atrium
Atrium
Tablinum through to the peristyle
Peristyle
Water feature in the peristyle Part of the peristyle water feature
Lead underground water distribution system
Damaged plaster work on a wall
Damaged fresco
A fading fresco
The work of some individual archaeologists
Wilhelmina Jashemski (1910-2007)
See text "Plant remains and the work of Dr Wilhelmina Jashemski" p.71; and "A comment on... the perfume industry" p.102“
Sarah Bisel
See text “The skeletons of Herculaneum” p.69
Some Australian archaeologists
Estelle Lazer
See text “Bones and casts from Pompeii” p.69
Estelle spent five seasons studying skeletal remains in Pompeii. Most remains had been gathered in one of the bath houses, the Sarno Baths (VIII.2.17).
Her aim was to examine the bones to see whether they reflect any age or gender bias. Her study shows that the remains appear to reflect a reasonably random sample of the population.
Some of the conclusions Estelle has drawn from her study are:
She disputes the view that the victims were the women, children, elderly and infirm.
Poor teeth: doesn't reflect social status. Worn teeth as result of volcanic grit in bread from the millstones.
10%: post-menopausal syndrome - hyperostasis frontalis. Led to obesity, tumours, facial hair.
Generally, the victims were in good health.
Estelle also studied the skeletal remain which had been found by Maiuri in the House of Menander. She found that these had been ‘improved’.
Jaye McKenzie-Clark (nee Pont)
Worked with Anglo-American Project in Pompeii which aimed to study below the AD 79 level. Studied red-slip pottery from Insula VI.1 using petrological thin-section analysis to establish the source of the pottery. Came to new conclusions about the origins of pottery in Pompeii: that most was locally manufactured and there was a great variety in quality reflecting the different abilities of various workshops in the Vesuvius area. Her work has challenged the previous assumption that most pottery was imported from the east. This is also the case for brick making.
Penelope Allison
Worked with the Australian team in the Houses in Pompeii Project recording paintings in the House of the Ancient Hunt.
Her main contribution has been a detailed study of the contents of 30 houses in Pompeii which had first been excavated by Fiorelli. These houses had better excavation records than those studied in the Houses in Pompeii Project, though there were still gaps in the recording. Her study has led to a better understanding of room use in Pompeii.
Some conclusions:
Vitruvius cannot be relied upon to provide an accurate idea of how rooms were named and used.
Pompeii was not frozen just as it had been in life. A number of factors have distorted the remaining material evidence, particularly that many important objects were taken from the houses by the occupants as they fled. Also there appears evidence that the remains have been disturbed in places, probably by people returning after the eruption to retrieve goods.
These factors make the site a more complex place to study than had previously been thought.
Her work has been published as Pompeian Households: An Analysis of the Material Culture, with an accompanying on-line database of the contents of the houses studied.
Some new technologies
Lady of Oplontis
(See also the Villa of Oplontis Project - text pp.194)
This is an example of new technology being used in the study of human remains.
A cast of one of the 75 victims found at Oplontis (near Pompeii) in the 1980s was made from epoxy resin rather than plaster. Resin casting allows bones and jewellery to be seen.
In 1994 the body was brought to Australia as part of an exhibition at the Australian Museum. The Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii gave permission for the body to undergo an MRI scan, the results of which were studied by
Estelle Lazer and medical specialists, revealing new information about her age, height, health and associated artefacts she was wearing or holding (e.g. a money purse).
Philodemus Project
Text Ch. 132
The carbonised papyrus scrolls found in the Villa dei Papyri at Herculaneum contain mainly the work of an ancient philosopher, Philodemus. In their charred state, they are very difficult to decipher. Using multi-spectral imaging it is possible to isolate the writing from the charred background.
The Philodemus Text and Translation Project centred at UCLA, with an international team of scholars, aims to translate the scrolls into English, to be made available to a wide audience for further study.
Use of CAD and three-dimensional imaging and model making
A number of the projects in Pompeii are using CAD to make accurate diagrams of specific areas of the site. Also three-dimension imaging allows models to be made which give a better understanding of the site and the buildings.
This had been used by the British School at Rome’s Pompeii Project – (text p.190) study of Insula I.9. 3-D images have been made of the whole insula, of the individual houses in the insula (e.g. House of the Beautiful Impluvium and House of the Orchard), and of objects found in the insula. These images are available online (see links above).
The Via dell’Abbondanza Project (text p.188) is creating a digital record of the buildings fronting the whole length of the street: “State-of-the-art surveying, photographic and computer equipment are used to create photomosaics that document the current condition of the structures.”
Archival photographs, electronic surveying and CAD programs are being used by the Pompeii Forum Project (text p.188) to create accurate architectural plans of the Forum and surrounding buildings to allow for greater understanding of the urban design of Pompeii.
Past HSC Question 2016
Explain the contribution that new research and technologies have made to reconstructing the past in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
In your answer, refer to Sources F and G and your own knowledge. (10 marks)
Source F: Screenshot of digital reconstruction of the Villa of the Papyri.
Source G: Extract from ‘Gardens’, Wilhelmina Jashemski, in The World of Pompeii, 2008
When the plants and trees growing at the time of the eruption died, their roots decayed, and the volcanic debris that covered the site gradually filled the cavities... It is then possible with special tools to empty the cavities, reinforce them with wire and fill them with cement. When the cement has hardened, the soil is removed from around the cast to reveal the shape of the ancient root.
Past HSC Question 2013
With reference to the information and ideas represented in Sources F, G and H, and your own knowledge, explain how new research and technologies since the 1980s have changed earlier interpretations of human remains from Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Source F: Extract from Estelle Lazer, Resurrecting Pompeii, 2011
Interpretation of the human skeletal remains from Pompeii and Herculaneum has been dominated by a storytelling approach ... Analysis of the skeletal remains enabled commonly held views about the population to be tested.
Source G: (Column graph of) Age and sex distribution of skeletons from Herculaneum studied by Luigi Capasso in the 1990s.
Source H: Extract from Marilena Cipollaro et al., Croatian Medical Journal, 1999
In collaboration with the Pompeii Archaeological Superintendence, our research group initiated the study of ancient DNA extracted from human bone remains buried in Pompeii and Herculaneum ... [This research] represents a new bridge between the world of exact sciences and the world of history. This new approach that involves different research fields, such as archaeology, anthropology, genetics, and molecular biology, allows the investigation of problems that until now were thought to be inaccessible to human knowledge.
Past HSC Question 2010
To what extent has research since the end of the 1960s changed our understanding of the evidence from the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum?
In your answer, refer to Sources F and G and your own knowledge.
Source F: Excavated human remains from Herculaneum.
Source G: Allison, PM, 1992, ‘The Distribution of Pompeian House Contents and Its Significance’, PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1992, Vol I, p 14.
Past HSC Question 2006
Using Source 4 and your own knowledge, explain how new research methods and technologies have contributed to our understanding of everyday life in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Source 4: (photograph of) Lady of Oplontis
Herculaneum's Lost Library documentary youtu.be/98W-j545-0Y
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