Exhibition: La Groma

‘La Groma’. Antiquarium di Boscoreale, Via Settetermini, 80041 Boscoreale (NA).

Ingresso 5 EURO.

(Source: Flickr)

A great new exhitition entitled ‘La Groma’ has just opened at the Antiquarium of Boscoreale, and will run until 20th September 2009. The exhibition has been organized by Grete Stefani, and is one of a series of small exhibitions that aim to provide a deeper insight into particular themes or aspects of everyday life (the exhibition last year on the wax tablets of the Moregine complex was part of this series). It is arranged around two main foci: the Nicostratus funerary inscription which depicts a groma, and the groma found in the Shop of Verus (I.6.3). There is a modern reconstruction of a groma displayed alongside the ancient (reconstructed) one (which is normally it is kept in the storerooms of the Naples Museum) along with an explanation of their use, and – something I found very interesting – a discussion of the find-spots and excavations of both the inscription and the ancient groma. A range of other artefacts from the Shop of Verus are also displayed. Matteo Della Corte hypothesized that this was the shop of a craftsman who made, or repaired (or both) metal objects – although there is no way of confirming this. A whole bunch of technical tools were found in the shop (various types of blade, a ruler, compasses, tweezers and so on), but there were also many other objects including lots of bronze and terracotta vessels (many found on the upper floor), a couple of money boxes, an incised gem, coins, jewellery, and so on. I’d be interested to hear what those of you working on shops have to say about this one …

There is a nice little pamphlet that accompanies the exhibition and which illustrates many of the artefacts and their findspots.