The latest Opuscula Romana (31 - 32, 2006 - 2007) has arrived in the American Academy library (or maybe I have only just seen it now!) and contains the following:
A-M. Leander Touati, Interim report of the Swedish Pompeii Project: work 2000 - 2004/5 in Insula V.1. Introduction, 101 - 4.
M. Staub Gierow, The House of the Greek Epigrams V.1.18.11-12: preliminary report 2000 - 2004, 105 - 118.
A. Karivieri and R. Forsell, The House of Caecilius Jucundus, V.1.22-27: a preliminary report, 119 - 138.
H. Boman and M. Nilsson, The commercial establishments V.1.13; V.1.14-16; V.1.20-21: preliminary report 2001 - 2004, 139 - 154.
M. Robinson, Evidence for garden cultivation and the use of bedding-out plants in the peristyle garden of the House of the Greek Epigrams (V.1.18i) at Pompeii, 155 - 160.
H. Boman and M. Nilsson, The early street and the prehistoric finds in Vicolo delle Nozze d'Argento, Pompeii, 161 - 166.
A blog for all those who work on Pompeii and the other archaeological sites of the Bay of Naples.
Showing posts with label Streets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Streets. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Pius IX's visit to Pompeii in 1849
I have recently been reading about Pius IX’s visit to Pompeii in 1849, while he was enjoying the king’s hospitality at Portici. He visited Pompeii on 22nd October and Herculaneum on 25th October (the small excavated part of Herculaneum was strewn with flowers!). There are contemporary accounts of Pius’ visits, and we know that he came to Pompeii with a huge entourage and that his visit was carefully orchestrated. His day appears to have gone something like this:
Entrance to the site through the Via dei Sepolchi and the Herculaneum Gate - House of the Faun – On-going excavations on Via Fortuna (at the second crossroads after the House of the Faun) - House of the Suonatrice (House of Marcus Lucretius on the Via Stabiana) – On-going excavations, possibly in the house next to the House of the Suonatrice (later named the House of Pius IX, of course!) – LUNCH in the Stabian Baths – Forum – Via dell’ Abbondanza – Triangular Forum – Theatre – Temple of Asclepius – Odeon – Theatre Portico – Temple of Isis – Then across unexcavated land to the Amphitheatre where he was met by crowds of the faithful. For parts of the visit Pius IX was carried by cart.
All well and good, although there is actually some discussion about which houses/shops he saw being excavated, which is relevant because at the end of the visit he was given all the uncovered artefacts from these excavations for the Papal Collection of Pagan Artefacts. Actually the uncovered artefacts were not particularly valuable, but their donation was a gesture to a Pope who was extremely interested in excavation (and sponsored work at Ostia and Rome). There is also a good chance that the excavations were staged - and in fact Fiorelli reports that excavations in the house/shops were begun in anticipation of the Pope's visit.
One of the things that strikes me the most, however, is what a good example this is of 'changes' being made to the excavations for the benefit of a famous visitor. In ‘Pompeii Awakened’ (2007), Judith Harris claims that stone stepping stones along his route were removed – AND NEVER REPLACED – so that the papal cart could pass by! She doesn’t give the source of her information, however, but I can remember noticing missing stones in the past, so she may well be right that it can all be blamed on Pius IX's visit.
Just as a matter of curiosity, can any of you working on streets can tell me the locations of the missing stepping stones?! I'm interested to see if we can fix the route that Pius IX took through the excavations ...
There is apparently a painting of Pius IX watching the excavations at Pompeii in the Vatican collection, but I have yet to find it.
Entrance to the site through the Via dei Sepolchi and the Herculaneum Gate - House of the Faun – On-going excavations on Via Fortuna (at the second crossroads after the House of the Faun) - House of the Suonatrice (House of Marcus Lucretius on the Via Stabiana) – On-going excavations, possibly in the house next to the House of the Suonatrice (later named the House of Pius IX, of course!) – LUNCH in the Stabian Baths – Forum – Via dell’ Abbondanza – Triangular Forum – Theatre – Temple of Asclepius – Odeon – Theatre Portico – Temple of Isis – Then across unexcavated land to the Amphitheatre where he was met by crowds of the faithful. For parts of the visit Pius IX was carried by cart.
All well and good, although there is actually some discussion about which houses/shops he saw being excavated, which is relevant because at the end of the visit he was given all the uncovered artefacts from these excavations for the Papal Collection of Pagan Artefacts. Actually the uncovered artefacts were not particularly valuable, but their donation was a gesture to a Pope who was extremely interested in excavation (and sponsored work at Ostia and Rome). There is also a good chance that the excavations were staged - and in fact Fiorelli reports that excavations in the house/shops were begun in anticipation of the Pope's visit.
One of the things that strikes me the most, however, is what a good example this is of 'changes' being made to the excavations for the benefit of a famous visitor. In ‘Pompeii Awakened’ (2007), Judith Harris claims that stone stepping stones along his route were removed – AND NEVER REPLACED – so that the papal cart could pass by! She doesn’t give the source of her information, however, but I can remember noticing missing stones in the past, so she may well be right that it can all be blamed on Pius IX's visit.
Just as a matter of curiosity, can any of you working on streets can tell me the locations of the missing stepping stones?! I'm interested to see if we can fix the route that Pius IX took through the excavations ...
There is apparently a painting of Pius IX watching the excavations at Pompeii in the Vatican collection, but I have yet to find it.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Populating Pompeii
How did Pompeians move through their city? A company called "Procedural," which seems to be based in Switzerland, has marshaled their expertise in urban modeling and computer programming to attempt an answer.In their own words:
Pompeii was a Roman city, destroyed and completely buried during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius. We have revived its past by creating a 3D model of its previous appearance and populated it with crowds of Virtual Romans. In this paper, we detail the process, based on archaeological data, to simulate ancient Pompeii life in real time. In a first step, an annotated city model is generated using procedural modelling. These annotations contain semantic data, such as land usage, building age, and window/door labels. In a second phase, the semantics are automatically interpreted to populate the scene and trigger special behaviors in the crowd, depending on the location of the characters. Finally, we describe the system pipeline, which allows for the simulation of thousands of Virtual Romans in real time.
Check out their work on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA3gzqG94JQ
You can read their paper as well:
http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch/~shaegler/wiki/research:papers:citycrowdsvast07:public:index
An interesting idea, I think, but one that raises more questions than it answers. Some immediate ones: Where are the kids? Why is everyone walking alone? Why is everyone walking in the first place (as opposed to riding, leading animals, pushing something, etc.)? I'm curious about others' thoughts.
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