The text describes new methods elaborated for and used in the building archaeological assessment of a city block, studied first on site, then remotely by members of the Swedish Pompeii Project. Use of a digital platform, with collected wall observations and analysis, systematic photographic documentation of all standing structures, and 3D models, allowed discussion to proceed after the fieldwork came to an end. The models provided new possibilities and new angles of approach, e.g. examining walls at any given point, studying boundary walls as wall-strings in their full extent, allowing all kinds of sectioning at will, introducing bird’s-eye views as a new perspective in study, and measuring wherever needed. The joint results obtained are summed up in a four-phase development of the use of space: the earliest structures; the late Samnite building boom (2nd century BC); the colony (second half of 1st century BC); the imperial era (until AD 79). This narrative includes conclusions concerning building process and development of masonry techniques and on changes in way of life. Many results affect Pompeian archaeology in general. Results of particular importance concern the character of the early plot division and the understanding of the building process creating the double-atrium house of Caecilius Iucundus, including an anchorage in time for this creation in the Claudian period. The relatively small impact in terms of damage that may be ascribed the literary recorded earthquake of AD 62/63 is also worth noting. The text ends with a suggestion of a new workflow for insula studies.
Swedish archaeologists have been working in Pompeii since 2000. Our fieldwork has consisted mainly of the study of standing walls and cleared floor levels in a city block unearthed in the 19th century and of the production of a comprehensive documentation, presented in an open access publication: www.pompejiprojektet.se/insula.php. The perspective of the present paper is the insula as a whole. Its main study objects are features of recurrent nature that in varying form and frequency are found in many of the separate houses and other units that constitute this insula: for example, the divergent materials used for the rubble masonry in the first phase of urbanisation, structures used for water management such as water supply and drains, possible earthquake damage and resulting repairs, preferences for where kitchens and sanitary installations are placed, markers indicating property borders and dependencies such as pavement curbing, courses of water inlets and drains, shops communicating with the houses through rear doorways, and the existence and extent of second-storey flats. The features studied are contextualised in their natural and urban environment. In general, historical events enter the discussion when linked to the chronological development of the infrastructures, communal and private, which this study highlights as being of decisive importance for understanding the development of the organisation of real estate and social structures in this insula and on a wider stage as well.
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