The goal of the second season of PARP:PS was to investigate the structure of the insulaand to further define the relationships between the various properties. Four trenches were opened inside the insula itself, and one trench was opened inside the Porta Stabia.

Insula VIII.7.1-15 showing 2005 and 2006 trenches (drawn by Dane Clark)

The Industrial Area (Trench 5000) 

Trench 5000 covered the entire northernmost room of VIII.7.1-2. Apart from some fragmentary early walls, two circular stone-lined features suggest that the industrial character of the property (seen in the front last season) extended throughout. They were probably used for drainage, sloping down under an opus signinum floor surface. Eventually, a drain was constructed down the center of the room. Another signinum floor was laid incorporating other industrial structures (probably of wood) that only survived as voids in the surface we found. Access to the space changed from a wide central doorway leading in from the east, to the current arrangement of a small lateral doorway. This was probably done when the large masonry platform along the entire northern wall of the room was installed.

The two circular features (a and b)

Blocked up central doorway with drain below. The masonry platform is to the left in the picture.

The Garden Space (Trench 6000)

Trench 6000 was placed in the rear of the property at VIII.7.1-2 which was bounded on one side of the city defences. As in other areas of the insula, the earliest features consisted of some isolated walls buried by later levelling deposits. These dumps were probably laid down to construct a large open space outfitted with an attractive garden painting (seen in old records of the area but now gone). A north-south aligned wall was built in the west of the trench, possibly indicating an early property boundary that would eventually lose its significance. The foundations for this wall revealed two clusters of coins, twelve in total. Each cluster was encased in soil and, as a consequence, preliminary statements of coin identification are not currently possible, but will be of tremendous importance in dating this phase.

Early walls in the pre-garden space

The coin hoard in situ

The Service Corridor (Trench 7000)

Trench 7000 presented an opportunity to investigate several very important walls for understanding the construction history of the entire insula. In particular, the property wall between properties 9/10 and 8, seems to have been pivotal to the spatial order of the area. Not only did this wall separate the two properties, at least in plan, it also appeared to have divided the entire insula into halves. Moreover, the construction of the eastern rooms of the Quadriporticusappears to have respected this division; the northwestern limits to the insula were bound by a wall that ran southward in an unbroken and straight line from the northernmost confines until it reached our division wall. As theQuadriporticus wall proceeded further southward, it shifted its linear alignment several times, as if having to respect pre-existing features or spaces from this point onward. We therefore located Trench 7000 in this area and found that the important dividing wall had once been united.

The dividing wall was also built directly atop the lava that forms the natural topography in this area of the city, and represents the earliest known phase of urban activity in this neighborhood. What is more, this wall remained in use from its earliest phase until 79 CE (so far the only wall found to do so).

Two drains were placed in this area. The first used one of the hallway’s walls as a side and emptied out into the Via Stabiana before it was eventually abandoned when the space was narrowed. A later drain was installed when access to the surrounding properties was configured. A doorway was created in the property wall linking properties 8 and 9/10 for the first time. The property at 9/10 could now enjoy access to the rear parts of property 8, and their unification was further attested by arrangements made for common drainage.

This second drain originated in the kitchen attached to the triclinium to the west (Trench 2000, excavated in 2005). A fascinating feature of this drain was a circular catchment built as part of its original construction, directly in the middle of the new doorway. Its bottom was 20 cm lower than the level of the drain. The larger items of material and waste from the kitchen would travel through the drain and settle at the bottom of the catchment. A circular stone lid with a handle closed the feature and could be removed for emptying the material. The system appears to be a rather unique arrangement at Pompeii.

Since this hallway led to a cooking and toilet area, we postulate that this area was a service corridor. The more public approach to the triclinium would have been through doorway 11, traversing past several dining spaces before turning left to approach the tricliniumspace head-on (through what is now a modern blocked doorway). What is interesting about these arrangements is that it is the property at 9/10/11 that was seemingly growing southward, taking over the rear space from the property at 7/8 which had no spatial connection with the triclinium space at the ground floor level.

Plan of the extent of Trench 7000 (Drawn by Dane Clark)

The later drain showing the circular catchment

Green arrows show the public access to the triclinium. Red arrows show the service corridor.

The Terrace (Trench 8000) 

The ground at the northern end of theinsula rises about 1.5 meters from the street level. In order to detect if this steep incline was the product of natural topographical conditions, or the result of an accumulation of ancient and/or modern deposits, we opened up Trench 8000. This uncovered many subsurface features including substantial early walls that were eventually torn down and buried to create the latest terraced surface. These early walls were built directly atop the lava plateau which was revealed in three places, between 12.8 meters and 13.2 meters above sea level, and thereby provided a good indication of both the natural topography for this northern limit of the insula and the later terracing.

The remains of one unusually broad wall projected northward beyond the northernmost perimeter of the property and insula. Therefore at some later stage, possibly with the construction of the large Odeon to the north in the 70s BCE, the northernmost area of ourinsula was truncated.

The substantial terracing leveling fill was of re-deposited volcanic material: degraded and crushed black lava with white inclusions, on top of which was laid a hard yellow sandy deposit.

In a late phase, there was a clear distinction between indoor and outdoor space. Inside, a lime-mortar floor paved a few small rectangular rooms and what seems to have been a toilet and waste removal feature in the south-east corner. The outdoor space atop the terrace had a beaten earth surface. By 79 CE, the entire area was unified into one large open space, with all earlier features knocked down and buried.

One of the buried walls under the terrace

A selection of features under the latest surface, including the two small rectangular rooms

The Cess Pit and Tank (Trench 9000)

We discovered that the large wall constructed to keep back the northern terrace of Trench 8000 predated all features here, including, very importantly, the construction of theQuadriporticus wall. This means that the construction of the eastern wing of theQuadriporticus occurred later than the terracing in the northern half of thisinsula and that the creation of our terrace heralded a flourishing of urban activities on this side of the dividing wall.

With the retaining wall in place, a cesspit was dug into the volcanic soils and lined with roughly cut pieces of masonry, volcanic stones, and tile. The bottom of the pit was never reached through excavation, given issues of safety, although we were able to detect that parts of its western face incorporated natural plateau lava (at about 1.4 meters in depth) and was built between the mid to second half of the 2nd century BCE.

A large holding tank built of quasi-reticulatum and lined with plaster sat to the north-east of the cesspit against the terracing wall. When exposed, it revealed a large deposit of lime, not unlike the piles of lime known from throughout Pompeii that might have been used in antiquity for the creation of mortar and plaster. The deposit in this example, however, was probably created in more modern times as it overlaid several pieces of modern construction material, including modern nails and other debris.

The relation between the Terrace Wall and the Quadriporticus Wall.

The cesspit with the rectangular tank above along the Terrace Wall.

The Porta Stabia Votive Deposit (Trench 10000)

Two arched wall niches, one larger above a smaller niche below, survive still in the eastern wall of the Porta Stabia. They were probably street shrines and early excavators found traces of painting in the uppermost one (now lost). Recent excavations in the city have excavated the sidewalk below such street-side shrines, although to find shrines associated with a city gate is rare in Pompeii. Therefore we decided we would investigate this area this season to learn more about them and uncover any associated ritual activities.

Our excavations revealed a sequence of sidewalk surfaces below the 79 CE level. The earliest surface we encountered was laid against the Porta Stabia sometime in the late 2nd century BCE, indicating that yet earlier sequences remain to be discovered in future seasons.

The lower, smaller niche was presumably made first in accord with a small square altar or podium that was inserted against the east wall of the gate. Its first associated surface was eventually raised, which meant the lower portion of the altar became buried. At this point, a ritual deposit was made in the raised sequence of levels to retain the altar’s sacred character. We recovered a small votive cup containing a small amount of carbonised remains, rim fragment of a glass plate, and a votive bowl in which was found the terracotta bust of a woman broken into three pieces. Her secure identification awaits further study and association with similar finds. Ecofactual material included a single vertebra, a fragment of jawbone and other unidentified bone fragments and pieces of charcoal.

When the sidewalk was raised for the final time in this area, the altar/podium became completely covered. It is therefore plausible that this action resulted in the cutting of the higher and larger niche into the east wall of the Gate. While the earlier partial covering of the altar resulted in votive offerings, its complete burial produced no observable ritual. This lack of votive deposits may be attributed to the possibility that the (contemporary) creation of the upper large niche required no offerings to be placed in the ground.

The two niches and area excavated in red.

The buried altar under the small niche.

The votive cup. (Drawn by Gina Tibbott)

The broken terracotta figurine. (Drawn by Gina Tibbott)

Acknowledgements

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous assistance and support of Pietro Giovanni Guzzo and Antonio d’Ambrosio. We consider their invitation to work in Pompeii an honour and a privilege. We would especially like to thank Giuseppe Di Martino for his tireless assistance on all matters. This project succeeded because of his generosity. All of our team enjoyed the companionship of the helpful custodians at the Porta Stabia. Of course our sincerest appreciation is extended to all of the members of our team. Stanford University and the University of Michigan offered a tremendous amount of assistance and encouragement which were very welcome.