... a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists. Pompeii was rediscovered as a result of intentional excavations carried out in 1748 by the Spanish military engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. Monumental peristyle in the Casa del Menandro Vesuvius, the ruins of the Roman town were rediscovered then excavated in the mid 18th century during the earliest days of archaeology. Dr Nappo Salvatore Ciro is an archaeologist who has been working in Pompeii for many years both in excavation work (Insulae I-14, I-22, Hospitium dei Sulpici) and in restoration work (Grande Palestra, Casa del Menandro, Casa del Citarista, Mura Meridionali). Pompeii was rediscovered and excavated in the eighteenth century as one of the finest and most preserved examples of Roman architecture. Seventeen years later, on August 24, 79 A.D., the sudden eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompeii with ashes and lapillus. With the return of the Bourbon king Ferdinand I to Naples, this method of organising the excavations continued, but there were fewer funds available to back the project. The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum ... offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects. Organizations and agencies that work to protect cultural heritage, Backstories: additional endangered objects and sites, Charles VII, King of Spain, Naples, and Sicily, ARCHES (at risk cultural heritage education series), https://smarthistory.org/rediscovery-pompeii/. Those who did survive left the city and moved to nearby settlements to start their new life, leaving the victims of the volcano to be preserved in t… The diaries of some of the people who made these journeys show how much influence the excavations had all over Europe, and these discoveries certainly eventually gave rise to modern archaeology, and led to the finding of many other ancient Greek and Roman towns. 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. ... artefacts and wall paintings were damaged or irreparably destroyed. This was found to be a comparatively easy task, because the debris that had caused such chaos was light and not compacted. Then in 1984 Baldassare Conticello started an extensive and systematic restoration of buildings in Regio I and II, where excavation work had already been completed. Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii ... Maiuri also uncovered the Casa del Menandro and Villa dei Mister, and he undertook stratigraphical research under the AD 79 level, in his search for the origins of Pompeii. His work still provides the standard framework for the study of these ancient Roman paintings. Mt Vesuvius, Italy, is home to one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in human history. Pompeii Redsicovery Timeline 1709-1711 While sinking a well, a farmer struck Herculaneum’s ancient theater, in which he found handsome ancient marble sculptures. Another 2018 discovery, this perfectly preserved shrine was found in … Roman or Greek? Domenico Fontana, an Italian architect, discovered the ruins of Pompeii in 1549, but it was not excavated until 1748. BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It is believed he found many things, but he covered the findings over after looking at only a few. Many European countries, thanks to the new importance given to the ancient world, opened academies in Naples and Rome to offer hospitality to those who wanted to study the newly excavated towns. In 1748, Pompeii was rediscovered & amongst the buildings & artefacts are fragmentary skeletal remains of some of her citizens. A Renaissance masterpiece nearly lost in war: Piero della Francesca, Saving Torcello, an ancient church in the Venetian Lagoon, What is archaeology: understanding the archaeological record, The rediscovery of Pompeii and the other cities of Vesuvius, The importance of the archaeological findspot: The Lullingstone Busts, When there is no archaeological record: Portrait Bust of a Flavian Woman (Fonseca bust), Conservation vs. restoration: the Palace at Knossos (Crete), Cultural heritage endangered round the world, The unintended consequences of UNESCO world heritage listing.  © During the first phase, the excavation was carried out essentially in order to find art objects. Their ruination and destruction left crucial questions unanswered, and made it impossible in many ways to gather a satisfactory understanding of the Roman world from them. . Dr Salvatore Ciro tells how the little town was rough-handled when it was first uncovered, but has survived to show us in amazing detail what town-life was like under Roman rule. The site is a harrowing experience despite its rich archaeological data, as victims of Vesuvius lay scattered around the site in the exact positions in which they died. Today's announcement from the Parco Archeologico di Pompei of a line of graffiti from Pompeii may finally put an end to the August vs. October debate. Scene with a centaur and a maenad from Villa di Cicerone These have Rome and other big cities as their main point of reference, meaning that the history they speak of corresponds to the history of big centres and cities - while the ancient Roman world was actually made up, above all, of a great number of small towns and villages. In Pompeii all is original: the tombs along the stone paved streets; the houses, with their frescoes - some with simple designs and gaudy colours, others more elegant and complex - which open onto shadowed arcades made precious by gardens in bloom and gushing fountains. Maiuri uncovered the city's walls, and found a large necropolis along its southern walls - while his excavation of the Via di Nocera allowed him also to explore Regio I and Regio II. Though both cities have rich histories influenced by Greeks, Oscans, Etruscans, Samnites and finally the Romans, they are most renowned for their destruction: both were buried in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He has had many articles about Pompeii published in Italy. Directly between them stood Mt. Usually Pompeii is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world – 2.5 million visited in 2018. Painters, sculptors, jewellers, upholsterers, cabinet-makers, joiners, decorators - all made explicit reference to the findings in the towns that Vesuvius buried, and there was a constant demand for books illustrated with accurate pictures. In the buildings of these towns - from the monumental to the most simple - the ancient world appears in all its complexity, with great clarity. The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, by contrast, offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects. Many modern visitors see Pompeii as merely a collection of ruined buildings, and find it difficult to believe that in AD 79 the streets, houses, public buildings were full of life. Pompeii was an older regional agricultural center; Herculaneum was the younger, predominantly Roman aristocratic city. Many artefacts considered suitable for the private collection of the Bourbon king Charles III (reigned 1759-88) were removed, and transported to Naples - where they remain to this day, displayed in the Museo Nazionale. A thoroughbred horse, its body rediscovered 2,000 years on. Since the earliest excavations were poorly… This, however, was carried out using inaccurate methodology, with inadequate instruments, and the project suffered from chronic underfunding, so the houses were not well restored and were eventually practically abandoned. Although best known for its Roman remains visible today dating from AD 79, it was built upon a substantial city dating from much earlier times. Initially, the city of Pompeii was inhabited by ancient Greek people. In order to find out about the morality, culture, sense of state and religion for the vast majority of people in the Roman-Italic world, it is to Pompeii and Herculaneum that we must turn. Dr Salvatore Ciro tells how … According to Pliny the Younger’s account, the eruption lasted 18 hours. The buried buildings of Pompeii were designed to last only a few decades - but are still standing after nearly 2000 years. (This article was translated by Enza Salerno). 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. Today the biggest danger for the old town is the increasing number of visitors, who often do not understand that they are touching, creeping, walking along, an open air museum, which requires much respect and attention. During the period of French control of Naples - (1806-1815) - the excavation methodology changed: things became more organised, and an itinerary was drawn up to accommodate the visits of scholars and important personages. The buried buildings of Pompeii were designed to last only a few decades - but are still standing after nearly 2000 years. Founded in the 7th Century BC by the Oscans, this town sat at the heart of an important crossroads between the Greek towns of Cumae, Nola and Stabiea. De Alcubierre shifted his focus to Pompeii, which had just been (re)discovered in 1748. Pompeii was basically lost and forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1748. He had dug a channel underground when he discovered the city. Fiorelli ... developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies. What was found in Pompeii in 1748? In 1599, Pompeii was accidentally rediscovered during construction of a canal. The city had been buried by millions of tonnes of volcanic ash when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Currently, the major concern at Pompeii is conservation—officials must deal with the intersection of increased tourism, the deterioration of buildings to a sometimes dangerous state, and shrinking funding for archaeological and art historical monuments. 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. Written in charcoal on the wall of a … The workshops and the shops immediately suggest the busy and noisy life once so much in evidence along the streets, and the religious sanctuaries are awesome even today - with monumental columns still emphasising the sacredness of the altars. By the end of the 18th century, two wide areas had been uncovered: the Quartiere dei Teatri with the Tempio d'Iside, and the Via delle Tombe with the Villa di Diomede. Herculaneum was discovered in 1709, and systematic excavation began there in 1738. Vesuvius, the ancient Roman city of Pompeii was lost for 1500 years before its discovery in the late 16 th century (“Pompeii”). The body count at Pompeii gives us a figure of 1,000 to 1,500 dead bodies. Only the magnificent Casa di Polibio was uncovered in this period. The present director, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo (who started his stint in Pompeii in 1994) has had to confront many management and financial problems in order to plan the finishing of excavations and the complete restoration of the buildings. The discovery of Pompeii is of huge importance for our modern-day understanding of the ancient Roman-Italic world - partly because the more public and monumental ruins left behind by Imperial Rome have often been misleading. We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free. The buried city was rediscovered in the 16th Century, but it was only in 1748 that the exploration phase began, under the King of Naples Charles III of Bourbon. In the most recent years, excavations have been carried out outside the Porta Stabia, and also in Murecine, near the river Sarno, where the Hospitium dei Sulpici has been uncovered. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. The town is especially famous for the picture it provides of everyday Roman life. Cite this page as: Dr. Francesca Tronchin, "The rediscovery of Pompeii and the other cities of Vesuvius," in, Young British Artists and art as commodity, Pictures Generation and postmodern photography, Featured | Art that brings U.S. history to life, At-Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series. The ruins at Pompeii were first discovered late in the 16th century by the architect Domenico Fontana. It covered the entire city of Pompeii in 23 feet of volcano ash and debris. It is here that we are most likely to find the truth about the society that made Rome 'caput mundi'. They don't recognise what a miracle it is that buildings that were originally erected to last for only a few decades, and that even on that basis would have required frequent upkeep, are still in existence - and able to tell us something of the life that was lived within them. Its luxurious courtyard villas survived with their fresco paintings and mosaic floors. 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