Pompeii: Its Discovery and Preservation

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• 1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
• 2. 1863-1923
• 3. 1924 - 2003
• 4. Pompeii and European culture
• 5. Pompeii as a source
• 6. Pompeii today
• 7. Find out more
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1863-1923

Giuseppe Fiorelli directed the Pompeii excavation from 1863 to 1875 - introducing an entirely new system for the project. Instead of uncovering the streets first, in order to excavate the houses from the ground floor up, he imposed a system of uncovering the houses from the top down - a better way of preserving everything that was discovered.

In this way the data collected during the excavations could be used to help with the restoration of the ancient buildings and of their interiors - although the most important wall paintings and mosaics still continued to be stripped and transported to Naples.

'Fiorelli ... developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies.'

Fiorelli also took the topography of the town and divided it into a system of 'regiones', 'insulae' and 'domus' - and he developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies that had been covered by the volcanic ash, and had then left a hole - shaped in the form of the plant or person - in that ash after putrefaction.

Michele Ruggiero, Giulio De Petra, Ettore Pais and Antonio Sogliano, continued Fiorelli's work in the following years, and during the last 20 years of the century began to restore the roofs of the houses with wood and tiles - in order to protect the remaining wall paintings and mosaics inside.

During these years many famous scholars came to study the remains of Pompeii, and one of them, August Mau, in 1882, created a system for categorizing the Pompeian pictures into a range of decorative styles. His work still provides the standard framework for the study of these ancient Roman paintings.

Vittorio Spinazzola, starting from around 1910, uncovered the Casa di Loreio Tiburtino, the Casa dell'Efebo, the Casa di Trebio Valente and Via dell'Abbondanza, which goes from west to east all along the length of the town.

He reconstructed the façades of the houses along this street with their balconies, upper floors and roofs, using a meticulous excavation technique. In doing so he demonstrated how it was possible both to understand the dynamics of how the buildings had been buried in the first place, and also what the original structure of the houses had been - thus making it possible to restore them accurately.

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Published: 2003-04-26