Trouble erupts over HSC exam error

ANCIENT history students are the victims of a Higher School Certificate exam mistake, aptly - and literally - known as Herculaneum Gate.

In 2008 HSC examiners in their annual post-mortem upbraided students who confused the two towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Two years later the examiners are accused of making the same error in a compulsory question posed to 12,269 students.

In last Friday's exam, students were asked about inscriptions from a cemetery excavated at Herculaneum.

But a cemetery has never been found at the Herculaneum archaeological site.

The inscriptions come from tombs at Pompeii, near the town's Herculaneum Gate.

Continue reading here.

House of Umbricius Scaurus VII.16.12-16 with new plans

We have updated the pages on www.pompeiiinpictures.com for all the houses making up the House of Umbricius Scaurus and added two plans.

The first plan is of VII.16.13/12/14 with rooms numbered from 1 to 50.
http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R7/7%2016%2013%20plan.htm

The second plan is of VII.16.15/16 with rooms numbered 1 to 37.
http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R7/7%2016%2015%20plan.htm

The numbering is based on that used in PPP (Bragantini, de Vos, Badoni, 1986. Pitture e Pavimenti di Pompei, Parte 3. Rome: ICCD), which splits the houses into two numbering groups.

We have also based our plans on that in PPP and have verified them against our photographs and made small updates to them. The three different levels of the house are colour coded so you can tell which level a room is on.

The photographs have been room numbered in line with the plans and there is also an indication in the text of which of the three levels of the houses the rooms shown are on. They have also been enlarged.

We hope these are the most comprehensive plans generally available.
If you know of any better plans we would love to hear from you.

We hope that teachers and students find the new web pages and plans useful.

Jackie and Bob

“Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day”: Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists

An interesting new document (draft) has been posted by the Perseus project for comment: “Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day”: Building a Cyberinfrastructure
for Digital Classicists. I recommend the section on Classical Archaeology as there are a number of digital projects listed there to explore. There is also an interesting discussion on the resistance (and the reasons for that resistance) to accept digital projects as relevant in academic assessment, particularly in the case of tenure promotion.

Certainly the existence and mode of operation of Blogging Pompeii is relevant here. How does BP fit into this digital milieu?

Plans of Region 8 properties at Pompeii - multi-level/below ground properties

Hello!

I'm writing in hopes of finding someone who has a bit of information on multi-level plans of Pompeii, in this case Region 8 upon which I am conducting my research into shops. Due to Eschebach's plan of the city being intially based on aerial photographs, upper and lower storeys of properties can be difficult to track down as far as plans are concerned. Most later sources of plans that I have come across present only the ground level plan of a building despite the actual ruins presenting a different picture.

In order to be as accurate and wide-ranging in my research as possible, I'm looking to see if anyone knows of a source of plans for the following properties:

• 8.2.22,23 - the Gymnasium/Palaestra associated with the Sarno Baths.
• 8.4.9 - the PPM 8 plan indicates Room {2} - indicating by the brackets another storey.
• 8.6.1,10,11 & 8.6.8,9 - the bakery complex of which 8.6.1,10,11 are on the upper level to the south and 8.6.8,9 are on the lower storey to the north, but still at street level, due to the natural incline of the insula's geography.
• 8.7.22 & 8.7.23 - both barrel vaulted properties beneath the peristyle of 8.2.24 which no longer exists today.

I would be grateful for any answers and hints!

Many thanks!
Sera

Look out archaeologists - no more miniskirts in Castellamare

A little break from archaeology...

I was surprised to hear of this story about Castellamare di Stabia on BBC Radio 4 this morning. It's rare for a small town like this to feature on worldwide news, but you'll understand when you hear it's because mini-skirts are likely to be banned and wearing one will become a fine-able offense.

The announcement comes not long after this advert for free entry for women to museums when they are accompanied (story here on MiBAC), which has received a large amount of criticism from women.


In addition to celebrating the Vesuvian area as this blog does, these two events might cause us to remember the contributions of (unaccompanied, perhaps mini-skirt wearing) women to archaeology, as well as those of men, and that these should be equally valued.

Pompei. Turismo, Comune e Soprintendenza collaborano

An article about collaboration between the local council and the Soprintendenza to support tourist initiatives, from Torresette.it:

Pompei. Turismo, Comune e Soprintendenza collaborano

Al via la collaborazione per un progetto turistico tra la Città di Pompei e la Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli e Pompei, che dovrebbe riguardare la somministrazione di prodotti tipici della gastronomia locale ai partecipanti dei "martedì d’arte" negli scavi di Pompei. E’ un dato positivo: dopo sei anni di amministrazione targati Claudio D’Alessio, nonostante le continue dichiarazioni di buona volontà, i rapporti tra l’Ente culturale di Stato e quello amministrativo sono stati sempre un disastro. La notizia è stata diffusa da un comunicato stampa del Comune che ha convocato per mercoledì 20 ottobre una conferenza presso la sala “Marianna De Fusco”. Soddisfatto il primo cittadino, che ha tenuto a far sapere che per la prima volta le due istituzioni collaborano tra loro per un progetto turistico. Difatti, nel corso dell’ultima stagione estiva, l’assessore al Turismo Avino ha cercato inutilmente di inserire nel carnet le iniziative "PompeiViva", che non gli sono state neanche comunicate. Inoltre alla Bit il commissario di governo Marcello Fiori non ha invitato il primo cittadino di Pompei, presente alla manifestazione in uno stand separato per promuove la città moderna. L’amministrazione di centrosinistra ha fatto sapere che il padrino della "neonata" collaborazione sarà l´onorevole Giuseppe De Mita, Vice Presidente della Giunta regionale, con deleghe al Turismo ed ai Beni culturali ed esponente Udc, vale a dire la stessa formazione politica in cui é approdato D’Alessio con una nutrita schiera di consiglieri fuoriusciti dal Partito Democratico. In ambienti diversi il merito dell’accordo viene attribuito all’iniziativa del consigliere d’opposizione Michele Genovese (FI), delegato dallo stesso D’Alessio ai rapporti con la Soprintendenza. Alla conferenza stampa, in cui sarà illustrato il programma nato da questa collaborazione, non interverrà la neo soprintendente Jeannette Papadoupulos, che avrebbe delegato il suo vice Antonio Varone. Per questo motivo la manifestazione potrebbe slittare al giorno successivo, in cui la Papadoupulos è attesa a Pompei.

MARIO CARDONE