POMPEII
FALL, RISE AND FALL OF
ANUSHA.K.B | GAYATHRI. A | KANYA RAJ SATISH | LAKSHUNHA.V | SUNANDA VASUDEVAN | YAMINI ANAND | YASH D GOGRI
- The area was originally settled in the Bronze Age on an escarpment at the mouth of the
river Sarno with its favourable climate and rich volcanic soil which allowed for the
blossoming of agricultural activity. That marked the beginning of the settlement
- FALL: Greek settlers in an independent-minded town in the Hellenistic Sphere in the 8th
Century B C came under the Roman conquest in 2nd Century BC, post which, it became
home for wealthy Roman vacationers. (Estimated population of 12000 people)
- Elegant houses, elaborate villas, bath houses, taverns, cafes, brothels, small factories, and
artisans shops, and vacation amenities like Open air spaces, market places and stadia that
could take 20,000 people at once lining paved streets.
- It was a prosperous trade centre at the bay of Naples exporting and importing various
goods , a sign of a thriving community.
GROWTH OF POMPEII
- The region is located in the Campanian
Volcanic Arc with the Vesuvius, a
commonly erupting volcano with a
history of over 50 eruptions till date.
- The one in 79 AD was its most dangerous
for the blast sent a plume of ashes,
pumice and other rocks, and scorching-
hot volcanic gases so high into the sky
that people could see it for hundreds of
miles around.
- As it cooled, this tower of debris drifted to
earth: first the fine-grained ash, then the
lightweight chunks of pumice and other
rocks.
A VOLCANIC SITUATION
- Most Pompeiians had plenty of time to flee.
- For those who stayed behind, however, conditions soon grew worse. As more and more ash
fell, it clogged the air, making it difficult to breathe. Buildings collapsed. Then, a
“pyroclastic surge”–a 100-miles-per-hour surge of superheated poison gas and pulverized
rock–poured down the side of the mountain and swallowed everything and everyone in its
path.
- By the time the Vesuvius eruption sputtered to an end the next day, Pompeii was buried
under millions of tons of volcanic ash. About 2,000 Pompeiians were dead, but the eruption
killed as many as 16,000 people overall. Some people drifted back to town in search of lost
relatives or belongings, but there was not much left to find.
- Pompeii, along with the neighboring town of Herculaneum and a number of villas in the
area, was abandoned for centuries.
VESUVIAN DAMAGE
- The site was left untouched until 1748, when a group of explorers looking for ancient
artifacts arrived in Campania and began to dig
- The ash as a marvelous preservative: Underneath all that dust, Pompeii was almost exactly
as it had been almost 2,000 years before. Its buildings were intact. Skeletons were frozen
right where they’d fallen. Everyday objects and household goods littered the streets. Later
archaeologists even uncovered jars of preserved fruit and loaves of bread!
- Neo- Classical revival of the 18th century: Europe’s wealthiest and most fashionable
families displayed art and reproductions of objects from the ruins, and drawings of
Pompeii’s buildings and helped shape the architectural trends of the era.
For example, wealthy British families often built “Etruscan rooms” that mimicked those in
Pompeian villas.
- Tourism is on the raise, and over 2.5 million tourists visit this UNESCO Heritage Site every
year.
REDISCOVERING POMPEII
PRE-ROMAN TRADITIONS
- During the earliest stages of Pompeii, the main burial site was outside the Herculaneum
Gate.
- The tombs were mainly attributed to burials dating back to the Samnite period (5th-4th
century BC).
- The dead were usually interred in graves or stone coffins together with grave goods.
ROMAN TRANSITION
- In the Roman period, the sepulchral areas developed on the outskirts of the city, outside the
city gates they are named after, beyond a ‘respect’ belt of about 30 metres wherein burials
were usually forbidden.
- Small tomb groups or funerary monuments of various kind, to commemorate the dead and
indicate their social status, were located along the roads departing from the city walls.
- Inside the tombs, each burial site was usually marked by an indicator stone, usually a
stylised human bust called columella, below which the vases containing the ashes of the
dead were buried.
THE NECROPOLI OF POMPEII
UNDERSTANDING THE NECROLOPI REGIOS OF POMPEII
NECROPOLI REGIOS
● The Necropolis of Ercolame, in the north-west of the city, was used mainly by upper-class
families, probably due to the fact that it was near Regio VI, a popular residential area
among the aristocracy.
● The Necropolis of Vesuvius Gate is located in the north, along the road leading to Mount
Vesuvius. In the early 20th century, the excavations brought to light some monumental
tombs of famous aristocratic citizens, including that of Vestorius Priscus, adorned with
an exceptional series of paintings.
● The Necropolis of the Nola Gate, in the east, hosts a variety of findings, including so-
called schola tombs, urns containing the ashes of lower-class people, and four tombs of
members of the Praetorian Guard, marked by memorial stones.
● The Necropolis of the Nocera Gate, in the south, is at the moment the largest of the city. It
hosts some important buildings, such as the tomb of Eumachia, but it was mainly used by
citizens of the middle or lower classes, including many freedmen living in the nearby
Regiones I and II.
● The Necropolis of the Stabiae Gate, in the south-west, had already been excavated in the
19th century. In 2017, an extraordinary funerary monument was discovered, covered with
marble slabs and with the longest inscription found until now, relating the most
important events in the life of the eminent deceased.
-The necropolis of the Herculaneum Gate, which stretches
along the road that led to Naples, was already used during
the first centuries of life in Pompeii,
-The monumental tombs illustrate types of funeral at that
time. two tombs upon leaving the Herculaneum Gate, on the
left, which consist of a semi-circular seat in tuff, called
schola typical of Pompeii and dedicated by the city
assembly to distinguished and deserving citizens.
-One of them preserves the inscription of the owner of the
tomb in large letters, the public priestess Mamia,
-Other tombs are built on a high basis in the shape of an
altar, depiction of the double seat, a symbol of the honour
granted to sit in the front row at the theatre and of a ship
that enters the port.
NECROPOLI HERCULANEUM
- Only four monumental tombs have been found
within this necropolis - two semi-circular seat-
type and two burial ground- type,
- The best-preserved seat-type tomb has a column
surmounted with a marble pot and was built by
the husband of Aesquilia Pollia for his wife, who
died at the age of 22.
- The other tomb is anonymous and belonged to a
priestess from Cerere, the protector of harvests, as
indicated by the cist and spikes on the base of the
burial column.
- Here, 15 victims of the eruption were found and
their moulds were made. The tombs of four
Praetorians the guards of the emperor, are found
near the walls, remembered in the inscriptions on
marble stelae.
NECROPOLI NOLA GATE
The Vesuvius Gate, on the Via del Vesuvio, was already
damaged by the earthquake of AD62
The building, the main distribution point for Pompeii's
water supply, was sited next to the gate due to the elevation
of the site, the area being some 34m higher than the lowest
point in the city around the Stabian Gate.
-Between the Herculaneum Gate and the Vesuvius Gate can
be seen the walls and towers built by the Samnites to
defend their city against Roman attacks. Near the gates, in
the great tufa blocks, are deep holes made by the stone
projectiles hurled against the walls by Sulla's military
machine when he crushed the city in the Social War in 89
BC
NECROPOLI VESUVIUS
- Archaeological investigations at the Port Stabia
necropolis have provided new and useful elements for
understanding the complex spatial arrangement of this
section of Pompeii
- These are two chamber tombs christened ‘Tomb A’ and
‘Tomb B
- Tomb A is an almost square shaped structure formed of
an elevated foundation of grey tuff parallelepiped blocks,
joined together by metallic clamps , onto which the
roofing was built, consisting of a series of small steps of
earth, lava stones, limestone chips and mortar, of which
at least the lowest was conserved in situ
- Tomb B, which is rectangular in shape, is formed of two
rows of white limestone parallelepiped blocks; the tomb
was probably crowned with an altar shaped element. On
three sides the plastered interior has rectangular niches,
while the fourth includes the access to the chamber.
NECROPOLI STABIA
UNDERSTANDING OF THE NECROPOLI THROUGH THE CASE OF NOCERA GATE
The necropolis of Porta
Nocera, in the south-east
sector of the city’s outskirts,
offers monuments and
funerary enclosures with burial
structures (graves, cremation
areas) built along the road to
Nocera which are well
preserved, including also in-
situ inscriptions. The
necropolis was founded during
the Roman colonisation of
Pompeii in 80 B.C. and was
used until 79 A.D.
A wealth of tombs which
formed the town's necropolis
have been unearthed along a
250-metre stretch of the road
running along the town walls
just outside the Porta Nocera
gate.
● “The necropolis is set on the sides of a road that runs parallel with the city walls.
● There are several burial monuments that exemplify the most popular models at the
beginning of the 1st century BC, the period when the necropolis began to be visited, and
79 AD.
● These include the tomb of Eumachia, the priestess who financed the construction of a
large building in the Forum dedicated to Augustan Concord and Piety.
● Here, inside an enclosure, there is the high basis over which a semi-circular (exedra)
opens up, inside of which the burial chamber is found.
● Two tombs are seen on the sides of the tomb of Eumachia, with a basis surmounted by an
aedicula that hosts the statues of the deceased.
● However, the simplicity distinguishes the enclosed tombs in which the ashes of the
deceased deposited in the urns are placed in earthen pits or in the base of the
monument.
● The poorer tombs are evidenced by the presence of rough stone busts called "columelle".
● The cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens, the magistrate who was sent by Emperor
Vespasian to rectify the unauthorised constructions in the city after the earthquake of 62
AD, can be seen from near the centre of the intersection of the road that goes from
Nocera gate and the path along which the Necropolis is found.
A deep sondage shows that the
road was built through a substrate
of volcanic tuff. All the various
road level appear to date to the
roman period. The organistaion of
the cemetery with its
monumental tombs flanking the
road is, therefore Roman. The
other purpose of the trench was to
obtail material from various levels
of use and occupation in order to
be able to evaluate the intensity of
funeral activity in adjoining plots.
The presence of funeray artefacts
in varying quantities and their
consistency with the material
found within the tomb plot itself
acts as a measure of the extent of
funerary activity over a long
period of time in this part of the
necropolis.
● The role of funerary rites was to ensure a proper
FUNERAL RITUALS separation between the living and the dead, an
important point for a community coping with
death and striving to return to the natural order
of things.
● These rituals celebrated a series of events aimed
at freeing the living survivors of the pollution of
death and modifying the status of the deceased
in order for him/her to become the recipient of a
funerary cult. Once the dead were settled in their
new abode, these symbolic actions were repeated
during subsequent festivals in their honour.
● Ritual practices were performed at the consecration of the tomb and during the period in
which the status of the deceased was in flux, but there were also other rituals that were
performed with the purpose of achieving a strict separation between the living and the dead
using the subtle symbolism of ‘reversal’.
TOMBS OF THE NECROPOLIS
In their most common form, the tombs consist of: the
burnt bones, collected at the cremation area and
wrapped in a cloth placed in a culinary ceramic urn,
more rarely in a lead one, or in a container in
perishable material deposited at the bottom of a pit.
Residues from the cleaning of the pyre can be dumped
into it, before or after the urn is placed.
A libation pipe, usually in ceramic, provides a
communication between the urn or the deep part of
the tomb and the surface, the stele is erected and,
finally, the pit is filled.
At the foot of the stele, a sealing slab in stone is
arranged horizontally with generally a semi-circular
notch that fits over the top of the libations pipe.
In some cases, there is no libation pipe or sealing slab
but a small mound of earth, bounded by some small
stones arranged in an arc of circle, is made just in
front of the stele.
FUNERARY MONUMENT OF PUBLIUS VESONIUS PHILEROS
This distinction is illustrated by the installation of the tomb
of P. Vesonius Phileros in the Neronian times. As the
successor of the family line of the Vesoni, the freedman has
first built his new social identity by erecting a monument in
his lifetime (vivos monumentum fecit). On the dedication
(titulus) in the front facade, nothing is said regarding the
organization of graves or the death of family members; the
only people mentioned are those who are important socially,
i. e. the patroness who was the last representative of the
Vesoni and a character bearing the official title of amicus
(this bond of friendship certainly sealed a business contract).
The death of the first member of the Phileros family was
undoubtedly the source of the addition of the term suis on
the inscription, suggesting that the tomb actually reported
the presence of a family compound. In a second instance
also, another plaque was added below the dedication with an
injunction calling to witness the passersby about an injustice
suffered in his lifetime by Phileros. The intent was to display
on the street an impeccable social memory.
LESSONS FROM POMPEII – TAKING CUES FROM THE SITE OF DEVELOPMENT
The story of Pompeii is one of tragedy induced by neglect at the settlement’s formation. From the
archeological studies a lot of signs that could have been ignored have been unearthed, some of
which are as follows:
- Streams and wells were drying out and being wrongly perceived as late monsoon instead of
evaporation induced by heat under the crust.
- Boiling and bubbling of the sea ignored as earthly phenomenon by fishermen
- Rambling and quivering of land and the groaning of the Vesuvius ignored as signs.
- Animal migration from Pompeii unperceived as a sign of non-livability.
- The occupation of land by Greek, Etruscans, Samnites and the Romans who tapped fertility of
soil, rich basalt deposits and richness in ecology without heed to the possibility of the volcanic
deposits being the reason for it all.
The lessons from Pompeii is one that throws light on the need to constantly relate the symptoms
of the site of development to possible reasons and be warned/ aware of the repurcussions.
