A collaborative project between the British School at Rome, the University of Reading, the Soprintendenza di Pompei and the Universita di Suor Orsola Benincasa (Naples) to study insula 9 in Regio I will soon be entering its third year of field study. The overall objective is to achieve an understanding of the origins of the insula and how it developed through time. The current focus of research on the part of the Centre for Roman Studies at Reading is the detailed study through stratigraphic excavation and analysis of the standing remains of two inter-related houses at the southern end of the block.
House 12 at the centre of the southern facade has the apparent characteristics of a classic, early 'atrium house' with an open, atrium court which, with the front rooms flanking the fauces, is built in the framework style with a facade of ashlar blocks. The tablinum, set centrally opposite the entrance passage, reveals modifications at a late stage. To the rear is a garden with peristyle and a room (11) opening on to it. The adjoining house 11 is very largely constructed of mortared rubble and can be seen from its standing remains to have undergone major modifications over time. In AD 79 when it was linked with house 12, a bar area (1) opened on to the street frontage, while the rear was occupied by a garden (5) bordered by a blocked-up peristyle. The street frontage of house 11 shows evidence of considerable change through time including indications of an earlier opening for a shop. Although each house had had its own water supply, by AD 79 both shared one cistern in room 5A of house 11.
Excavation in the garden area of house 11 in 1995-6 has already begun to produce exciting results: the creation of the garden proved to be an intermittent activity over the first century AD until the dumping of soil finally obscured a series of benches arranged around the walls of the garden. The discovery of a series of cremations which predominantly contained the remains of gallus sp. (in one case the remains of some 20 cockerels), but other birds and animals as well, suggests the possibilities of sacrifice and the use of the garden as a cockpit. Beneath it is evidence of earlier walls, and at least three wells, showing that the property looked very different before the beginning of the first century AD, whence the existing building appears in essence to date.
In AD 79 the garden contained stacks of empty amphorae, several of which carried the abbreviated name Sextus Pompeius Amarantus, presumed to have been the proprietor of the conjoined properties. Root voids distributed across the area between the amphorae and stone blocks indicate that trees and ?vines had been growing, justifying the term 'garden'. Next door in house 12, half the atrium court was filled with rows of upright amphorae of Cretan origin (presumably full and for consumption in the bar next door). Completion of the excavation of room 4 flanking the fauces revealed the remains of a mule with a dog at its feet lying on the collapsed remains of a manger. Thus the further exploration of the two houses provided vivid and poignant evidence of how they were used at the time of eruption.
Clearnace of the amphorae from the atrium court of house 12 revealed evidence of building activity - a heap of broken plaster and vessels filled with mortar and other materials. Although the tablinum and rooms 7 and 11 are decorated in the Fourth Style, there is no evidence that this programme of refurbishment was extended in to the atrium court. We can now say that the decision to abandon the programme of refurbishment was made before the last phase of the two houses.
Just as excavation of the garden of house 11 has produced evidence of underlying walls, so too has that of the atrium court of house 12. Of particular interest is the dating evidence which is beginning to emerge from the fill of a well and the robbed out foundations of an early wall which suggest that the house, although archaic in design and the materials used, may not be earlier than the late first century BC.
The excavation is thus meeting its aim of providing objective evidence for the chronology of the two houses and their predecessors under detailed investigation in insula 9. At the same time it is yielding a very detailed picture of changing day-to-day use over time. The excavation will continue in 1997.
Professor Michael Fulford
Further reports will follow. Meantimes contact the Dept of Archaeology: M.A.James@Reading.ac.uk.