excavation history

EXCAVATION HISTORY

TITUS

.. Whether by offers of sympathy or by giving all the financial help he could. He selected by lot some senators of consular rank to regenerate Campania, and he allocated the property of those who had died in the eruption and who had no surviving heirs to the renewal of the afflicted towns

Dio Cassius. 66.24. 1, 3-4.Titus himself took no money from individuals or cities or kings although many kept giving and promising him large sums, but restored all the damage from his resources.

SUETONIUS TITUS 8.3

CIL IV 2311 ( House of N. Popidius Priscus) VII, ii, 20)

Scratched on right wall of entranceway.

House tunneled through ( Latin in Greek letters)

Materials stripped from Forum

SALVAGE?

LONG SLEEP

120 CE

4TH CENTURY C.E.

Late antique lamps and pottery dating from the 6 th to the 16 th c. CE found in Suburban Baths,

House of Julia Felix

House of Fabius Rufus

LOOTING/EXPLORATION

LETTERS OF PLINY

12TH C. CE COPY OF 4TH C .CE PEUTINGER TABLE

Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae

LA CIVITA

1500- 1700 CEAncient ruins found, but reburied.

Inscription ( POMPEI)(Pompey)

Geographer states that Pompeii lies underneath La Civita

PERIODS OF EXCAVATION

Treasure Hunting 1709- 1859

Scientific 1860- 1978

Modern 1979- present

TREASURE HUNTING--PRINCE D’ELBEUF

1709 well deepening

CHARLES VII KING OF NAPLES

1738 ( New Villa)

ROCCO ALCUBIERRE’S THEATER TUNNELS

HERCULANEUMMARCUS NONIUS BALBUS

BASILICA

THESEUS( BASILICA)

1740 ACCOUNT OF “EXCAVATIONS”

“ There might certainly be collected great light from this reservoir of antiquities, if a man of learning had the inspection of it; if he directed the working and would make a journal of the discoveries. But I believe there is no judicious choice of directors..”

Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford

1748- 50 “ La Civita”

1750 Herculaneum

1755 Return to Pompeii (1763 –inscription identifies site)

Swiss Military Engineer, Assistant to Alcubierre

First systematic excavation ( respected lines of streets, detailed plans, weekly summaries of finds, entering houses through doors

KARL WEBER

VILLA OF THE PAPYRI 1752-1765

4 levels terraced to the sea

DANCERS

SENECA?

EPICURUS / SCIPIO AFRICANUS (?)

RUNNERS

RESTING HERMES

SLEEPING FAUN

DRUNKEN SATYR

PAN

ATHENA

MUSE ?

13 large bronze

7 large marble

18 medium and small bronzes

32 bronze busts

15 marble busts

TOTAL SCULPTURE ( 90 PIECES)

1,787 VOLUMES

Fr. Antonio Piaggi ( 1756) 3 scrolls in 4 years

POEM ON ACTIUM IN LATIN

MOST= GREEK=PHILODEMUS/ EPICUREANISM

Treatise on Music

EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY

The most important thing in life is pleasure. ( But not in excess). Pleasure and happiness are caused by freedom from disturbance. The world is explained by natural causes so one does not have to worry about the gods. If you understand the universe you will be free from anxiety. The soul dies with the body. Avoid competition and intense emotional commitments

( removes jealousy and failure).

“Friendship dances around the word, calling us to awake to the joys of a happy life”

“ It is not a succession of drinking feasts and of revelry ,not sexual love, not the enjoyment o fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table that produces a pleasant life; It is sober reasoning.

“ Sexual intercourse never did anyone any good and he will be lucky if it did not actually do harm”.

PISO?

WINCKLEMANN “ FATHER OF ART HISTORY” 1758

THE GRAND TOUR

SOCIETY OF THE DILETTANTI 1778

1748- 50 “ La Civita”

1750 Herculaneum

1755 Return to Pompeii (1763 –inscription identifies site)

POMPEII, TEMPLE OF ISIS 1764

Temple of Isis, not back-filled

Objects left in site for visitors

Paintings still removed to museum, but drawn first

Attempts to preserve things in situ and repair ruins

INTEREST IN PRESENTATION AND PRESERVATION

VILLA OF DIOMEDES ( 20 DEAD) 1771-1774

END OF 18TH CENTURY

CAROLINE BONAPARTE (1808 RULER OF NAPLES WITH HER

HUSBAND)

MAZOIS ( 1812)

One of first real scholarly studies.

NEO-CLASSICAL STYLE

TOWN WALLS, FORUM, AMPHITHEATER

FERDINAND IV ( KING OF NAPLES)—SON OF CHARLES ( 1815)

REGION VI AND VII

Forum Baths, House of the Tragic Poet

HOUSE OF THE FAUN

TOURISM/TRAIN FROM NAPLES ( 1840)/ MARINE GATE ENTRANCE

Also theft and corruption

BRIULLOV ( 1827)

Glaucos and Ione/ Nadia

BULWER-LYTTON-1834

Glaucos and Ione/ Nadia

THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII

“ He caught his beloved in his arms and with difficulty and labour gained the temple He bore her to the remoter and more sheltered part of the portico, and leaned over her , that he might shield her, with his own form, from the lightning and showers! The beauty and unselfishness of love could hallow even that dismal time!”

WINTER PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG (1830-40)

Villa of Diomedes ( 1770’s) imprint of a woman’s breast found

1852

PERIODS OF EXCAVATION

Treasure Hunting 1709- 1859

Scientific 1860- 1978

Modern 1979- present