How were buildings constructed in ancient Pompeii? New data emerge from the excavations

New data onRoman construction has emerged from the ongoing excavations at the Pompeii Archaeological Park: in the rooms of ancient domus that the archaeological excavation is uncovering in Regio IX, insula 10, work tools, stacked tufa tiles and bricks, and piles of lime have resurfaced, probably remnants of a construction site in full activity. According to scholars, the construction site was active until the day of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, which began around lunchtime and lasted until the morning of the next day. The excavation in the area in question, aimed at the regimentation of the hydrogeological setting along the boundary between the excavated and unexcavated parts of the Roman city, is attesting to the presence of an ancient building site that affected the entire block. There is numerous evidence of work in progress in the house intended for bread-making. The atrium was partially uncovered, materials for renovation were piled on the ground, and on a door of the tablinum (the reception room), decorated in IV Pompeian style with a mythological painting depicting Achilles at Syrus, one can still read what were probably the yard counts, namely Roman numerals written in charcoal, easily erasable.

Traces of the ongoing activities can also be found in the room that housed the lararium, where amphorae were found that were reused to “quench” the lime (i.e., put in contact with water) used in the laying of plasters. Construction tools, from lead weights to iron hoes used for preparing mortar and working with lime, were found in various rooms of the house. Also in the neighboring house and in a large dwelling behind the two dwellings, only partially investigated for the time being, numerous evidences of a large construction site were found, also attested by the huge piles of stones to be used in the reconstruction of the walls and the amphorae, pottery and tiles collected to be made into earthenware.

This is an “extraordinary opportunity to test the potential of close collaboration between archaeologists and materials scientists,” wrote the authors of an article published in theE-Journal of the Pompeii Excavations. In analyzing materials and construction techniques, the Pompeii Archaeological Park has enlisted the support of a team of experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. "The hypothesis pursued by the team is that of hot mixing, or mixing at elevated temperatures, where quicklime (and not slaked lime) is premixed with dry pozzolan and subsequently hydrated and applied in the construction of the opus caementicium," the paper reads.

In the case of the Pompeii building site, it appears that quicklime, that is, not yet brought into contact with water, was at first mixed only with pozzolanic sand, while the contact with water occurred shortly before the wall was laid. This meant that, during the construction of the wall, the mixture of lime, pozzolanic sand and stones was still warm due to the thermal reaction taking place and consequently dried more quickly, shortening the time for the entire construction. Differently when it came to plastering the walls, it seems that the lime was first slaked and then mixed with aggregates to be laid.

“This is another example of how the small city of Pompeii makes us understand so many things about the great Roman Empire, not least the use of cementitious work,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park. “Without cementitious, we would not have the Colosseum, the Pantheon or the Baths of Caracalla. The ongoing excavations in Pompeii offer a chance to observe almost live how an ancient construction site worked. Emerging data seem to point to the use of quicklime in the construction phase of the walls, a practice that has been hypothesized in the past and apt to greatly accelerate the time of a new construction, but also of a renovation of buildings damaged, for example, by an earthquake. This seems to have been a widespread situation in Pompeii, where work was going on just about everywhere, so it is likely that after the great earthquake of 62 AD, seventeen years before the eruption, there were other seismic tremors that struck the city before the cataclysm of 79 AD. Now we network among research institutions to study the building know-how of the ancient Romans: maybe we can learn from them, think about sustainability and reuse of materials.”

“Pompeii is a treasure chest and not everything has been revealed in its full beauty. So much material still needs to be able to emerge,” commented Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. “In the last Budget Law we financed new excavations all over Italy, and an important part of this allocation is earmarked precisely for Pompeii. I was very pleased when the director of the Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, mentioned that never before have so many excavations been active at the site: we can say that it is a record in recent decades. At the same time we are also working on other fronts. In recent months, the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, gave the former Spolettificio di Torre Annunziata to the Ministry of Culture, where a large museum will be built to collect all these finds.”

“The excavation in Regio IX, insula 10, planned during the years of the Great Pompeii Project is yielding, as was to be expected, important results for the knowledge of the ancient city. An interdisciplinary research site, born like the previous excavation of Regio V, from the need to secure the excavation fronts, that is, the walls of eruptive material left by the excavations of the 19th and 20th centuries that loom dangerously over the excavated areas. Pompeii continues to be a permanent construction site where research, securing, maintenance and fruition are related activities and daily practice,” concluded Museums Director General Massimo Osanna.

How were buildings constructed in ancient Pompeii? New data emerge from the excavations

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