Pompeii

[ edit ] Settlement phases of Pompeii First (Samnite) town First expansion, 4th century BC Second expansion Roman expansion, from 89 BC Although best known for its Roman remains visible today, dating from AD 79, it was built upon a substantial city dating from much earlier times. Expansion of the city from an early nucleus (the old town ) accelerated after 450 BC under the Greeks following the Battle of Cumae .

[ edit ] Greek Doric Temple (6th century BC) in Triangular Forum Etruscan Temple of Apollo The first stable settlements on the site date to the 8th century BC when the Oscans , a population of central Italy, founded five villages in the area. With the arrival of the Greeks in Campania from around 740 BC, Pompeii entered the orbit of the Hellenic people. The most important building of this period is the Doric Temple, built away from the centre in what would later become the Triangular Forum. : 62 At the same time the cult of Apollo was introduced. Greek and Phoenician sailors used the location as a safe port. In the early 6th century BC, the settlement merged into a single community centred on the important crossroad between Cumae , Nola , and Stabiae and was surrounded by a tufa city wall (the pappamonte wall). The first wall (which was also used as a base for the later wall) unusually enclosed a much greater area than the early town together with much agricultural land. That such an impressive wall was built at this time indicates that the settlement was already important and wealthy. The city began to flourish and maritime trade started with the construction of a small port near the mouth of the river. The earliest settlement was focused in regions VII and VIII of the town (the old town) as identified from stratigraphy below the Samnite and Roman buildings, as well as from the different and irregular street plan. By 524 BC the Etruscans had settled in the area, including Pompeii, finding in the river Sarno a communication route between the sea and the interior. Like the Greeks, the Etruscans did not conquer the city militarily, but simply controlled it, and Pompeii enjoyed a sort of autonomy. : 63 Nevertheless, Pompeii became a member of the Etruscan League of cities . Excavations in 1980–1981 have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions and a 6th-century BC necropolis . Under the Etruscans, a primitive forum or simple market square was built, as well as the Temple of Apollo , in both of which objects including fragments of bucchero were found by Maiuri . Several houses were built with the so-called Tuscan atrium , typical of this people. : 64 City walls T

[ edit ] Periods/areas of excavations Titus appointed two ex-consuls to organise a relief effort while donating large amounts of money from the imperial treasury to aid the victims of the volcano. He visited Pompeii once after the eruption and again the following year but no work was done on recovery. Soon after the city's burial, survivors and possibly thieves came to salvage valuables, including the marble statues from the Forum and other precious materials from buildings. There is wide evidence of post-eruption disturbance , including holes made through walls. The city was not completely buried, and the tops of larger buildings would have been visible above the ash, making it obvious where to dig or salvage building material . The robbers left traces of their passage, as in a house where modern archaeologists found a wall graffito saying "house dug". Archaeological evidence suggests that following the eruption, the site was reoccupied by survivors as a small informal settlement that lasted until the fifth century. Over the following centuries, its name and location were forgotten, though it appeared on the Tabula Peutingeriana of the 4th century. Further eruptions, particularly in 471–473 and 512, covered the remains more deeply. The area became known as La Civita (the city) due to the features in the ground. Plan of Fontana's aqueduct through Pompeii The Garden of the Fugitives : plaster casts of victims still in situ ; many casts are in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. The next known date that any part was unearthed was in 1592, when architect Domenico Fontana , while digging an underground aqueduct to the mills of Torre Annunziata , ran into ancient walls covered with paintings and inscriptions. His aqueduct passed through and underneath a large part of the city and would have had to pass through many buildings and foundations, as they still can be seen in many places today. However, he kept the finding secret. In 1689, Francesco Picchetti saw a wall inscription mentioning decurio Pompeiis ("town councillor of Pompeii"), but he associated it with a villa of Pompey . Francesco Bianchini pointed out the true meaning, and he was supported by Giuseppe Macr

[ edit ] Map of Pompeii After those of Fiorelli, excavations continued in an increasingly more systematic and considered manner under several directors of archaeology though still with the main interest in making spectacular discoveries and uncovering more houses rather than answering the main questions about the city and its long term preservation. In the 1920s, Amedeo Maiuri excavated older layers beneath those of 79 AD for the first time to learn about the settlement history. Maiuri made the last excavations on a grand scale in the 1950s, and the area south of the Via dell'Abbondanza and the city wall was almost completely uncovered, but they were poorly documented scientifically. Preservation was haphazard, and his reconstructions were difficult to distinguish from the original ruins, which is a great handicap for studying genuine antique remains. Questionable reconstruction was also done after the severe earthquake of 1980, which caused great destruction. Since then, work has been confined to the excavated areas except for targeted soundings and excavations. Further excavations on a large scale are not planned, and today archaeologists are more engaged in reconstructing, documenting and slowing the decay of the ruins. In December 2018, archaeologists discovered the remains of harnessed horses in the Villa of the Mysteries . Via dell'Abbondanza, the main street in Pompeii Under the 'Great Pompeii Project' over 2.5 km (1.6 mi) of ancient walls within the city were relieved of danger of collapse by treating the unexcavated areas behind the street fronts in order to increase drainage and reduce the pressure of groundwater and earth on the walls, a problem especially in the rainy season. These excavations resumed on unexcavated areas of Regio V . In November 2020 the remains of two men, thought to be a rich man and his slave, were found in a 2 m-thick (6.6 ft) layer of ash. They appeared to have escaped the first eruption but were killed by a second blast the next day. A study of the bones showed that the younger one appeared to have done manual labour and hence was likely a slave. In December 2020, a thermopolium , an inn or snack-bar, was excavated in Regio V.