SUMMARY

This project was initiated in 2024 under the direction of Domenico Esposito and Monika Trümper, in cooperation with the Parco Archeologico di Pompeii and Marco Giglio from the Università di Napoli L’Orientale. It aims to investigate the development and function of the little studied Insula VIII.5 in Pompeii with a multimethod approach, including the study of architecture, decoration, finds, and archival documents as well as stratigraphic excavations.

  

FUNDING

The project is generously funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) from 2025 to 2028. Thanks to an Erasmus+ staff mobility exchange in collaboration with the Università di Napoli L’Orientale, we were able to conduct on-site field schools in 2024 and 2025, bringing together students from both universities.

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Insula VIII.5 is located in urban prime location at Pompeii, between the two main public areas of the town, the Civil Forum and the Triangular Forum (fig. 1). It is bordered by the Via dell’Abbondanza in the north, the Via dei Teatri in the east, the Vicolo delle Pareti Rosse in the south, and the Vicolo dei 12 Dei in the west (fig. 2). On 6.475 m² surface area, the insula was occupied in AD 79 by a large double-atrium-peristyle-house (Casa del Gallo, VIII.5.2,5); four atrium houses with truncated peristyles (Casa VIII.5.9; Casa del Medico, VIII.5.24; Casa della Calce, VIII.5.28; Casa delle Pareti Rosse, VIII.5.36); a small courtyard-complex with a single colonnade (VIII.5.39 Casa di Acceptus e Euhodia); a large garden-complex with various porticoes and rooms (Casa di Nesso, VIII.5.15-16,38); a series of 21 tabernae and taberna-complexes along the Via dell’Abbondanza and the Via dei Teatri that were independent or linked with adjacent houses; and an area in the southeast corner that was attached to the Casa della Calce and served as a kind of building yard (VIII.5.36). The building yard occupies the terrain of the former Republican Baths. A cul-de-sac (Vicolo 1) running north-south partially divides the insula into two equal halves and leads to the large garden-complex. Thus, in its last state of use, Insula VIII.5 provided an intriguing mixture of residential and commercial units that often defy easy and clear-cut classification. The recently identified building yard that was used for quarrying volcanic ashes and for depositing building debris may have had parallels in Pompeii but their existence and importance has not been studied comprehensively.

Insula VIII.5 was excavated in three different phases: by 1817 the facades along Via dell’Abbondanza and Via dei Teatri had been cleared; by 1845 the atria of the houses along Via dell’Abbondanza had been excavated; and finally, by 1883 the excavation of the south sector of the insula was completed. The state of preservation of the insula immediately after excavation is well documented by the cork model in the National Museum of Naples (fig. 3) which documents structures that have been lost over the past 140 years. No detailed, published or unpublished, descriptions of the insula survive from the 19^th and early 20^th century.

In 1946 and 1950, Maiuri made c. 55 trenches of varying sizes within a period of ten weeks in five houses of the insula, most of them in the Casa del Gallo and the Casa della Calce. In addition, the Republican Baths were excavated between 24 April and 15 July of 1950 (fig. 4). The main purpose of Maiuri’s excavations was to investigate the pre-Roman phases of some important Pompeian domus, as he had already done in Regio VI. Maiuri published only selected trenches carried out in the houses and the excavation of Republican Baths in preliminary reports (Maiuri 1944-1945, 143-159, reprinted in Maiuri 1973, 171-182; Maiuri 1950). His investigations have shown that the terrain of the insula was built from Pompeii’s foundation in the 6^th century BC through its destruction by Vesuvius in AD 79, and that, thus, the terrain played an important role in the city’s development and life. But the insula has received little attention after Maiuri’s excavation and has never been comprehensively investigated and published; thus, large parts of it are entirely unknown.

The only exception are the Republican Baths that have been explored between 2015 and 2019 (Trümper 2017, 2018, 2020a, 2020b; Heide 2021; Trümper 2022, 273-276; Trümper et al.2024) (fig. 5). This project revealed evidence of significant changes in all phases that are commonly identified as key periods of the city’s historical and urban development: the Archaic period when Etruscans founded the city; the Samnite period from the 5^th to the early 1^st century BC which included a major urban monumentalization in the 3^rd/2^nd century BC; and the Roman period after 89 BC, when Pompeii was transformed into a Roman colony (80 BC) and saw the heyday of its urban development. The project also yielded evidence of the major earthquake in AD 62 which was followed by further earthquakes before Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. Remains of an east-west running vicolo (Vicolo 2) were identified between the Republican Baths and the Casa della Calce, suggesting that the insula was at some point during its history subdivided into four smaller insulae (fig. 6).

Building upon the promising results of the Republican Baths project, the new project aims to fill a significant gap in research by investigating the entire Insula VIII.5 with a tried and tested multi-method and interdisciplinary approach. The following questions will be examined: how was Insula VIII.5 developed between the 6^th century BC and AD 79, what was its function and urban significance, and how can its investigation contribute to current research debates on the history and urban development of Pompeii, notably its much-debated southwest sector (‘Altstadt’). The project will significantly contribute to many current discourses in research on Pompeii, particularly the development and significance of Pompeii’s southwestern sector. The project is planned for a period of six years. All available evidence will be studied, including archival documents, standing architecture, decoration, and finds. Central to answering the research questions are stratigraphic excavations in the entire insula. A preparatory cleaning campaign carried out in March 2024 has revealed important insights for the potential and feasibility of the planned work program.

 

FIELDWORK

2024

In March 2024, a first cleaning and documentation campaign of two weeks was carried out in the eastern sector of Insula VIII.5. The purpose was to assess the potential and challenges of studying this insula and to clarify the possible presence of floors, esp. in those areas where stratigraphic excavations are to be carried out. A much larger number of floors were identified than those documented in Pompeii Pitture e Mosaici (fig. 7). The chronological relationship between these floors and adjacent rising walls proved to be much more complex than hitherto assumed. The preliminary study of built features showed that the history of buildings can be reconstructed to a much greater extent than expected, even in places where well-preserved floors prevent excavations. And it also cautioned against the straightforward dating of wall techniques and materials that is often practiced in Pompeii—due to lack of excavation and other data: for example, opus incertum walls in the Casa della Calce that are made of lava and on first sight appear to belong to the Late Samnite period (late 2nd/ early 1st century BC) of the house, proved to have been completely rebuilt after the earthquake of AD 62; they sit on top of the Late Samnite foundation, but slightly protrude beyond this foundation and the Late Samnite concrete floor (fig. 8).

 

2025

Based on the results of the cleaning campaign and the study of archival documents, a first excavation campaign was carried out from 8 September to 3 October 2025 (fig. 9).

Report of the 2025 Season (pdf)

  

TEAM

• Domenico Esposito, Freie Universität Berlin
• Antonio Ferrandes, Sapienza Università di Roma
• Marco Giglio, Università di Napoli L’Orientale
• Giacomo Pardini, Università degli Studi di Salerno
• Alessandra Pegurri, Sapienza Università di Roma
• Monika Trümper, Freie Universität Berlin

 

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