II.3.4-6

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location Description

An ancient city of Campania destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

Sublocation

Region II

Insula

Insula II

House

Garden

Small domestic property with a garden to the rear.

Keywords

Garden Description

A. A small garden at the rear of this connected house and caupona may have originally contained the two small statuettes found at this site in 1953. The two pieces were a headless ithyphallic tufa statuette (0.33 m. high with base; Pompeii inv. no. 10017) and a marble statuette of Venus (0.51 m. high without base; Pompeii inv. no. 9926) with much of the red color preserved in the drapery. The inventory books list this house as II.vi.4.

B. The small garden to the rear of house 4 had an entrance into this large open area (b) which had been planted at the time of the eruption. There was a second entrance (6) from the side street. At the time of excavation a cistern was noted in the southwest corner, a basin along the south wall just before the jog, and the presence of seven root cavities. Jashemski found a few other scattered root cavities later, but too much damage had occurred from new growth to determine the original planting plan. At the east end of the north wall a door opened to a small sacellum with an aedicula lararium on a small podium on the rear wall and a small masonry.

Dates

1754 to 1757, 1952

Bibliography

Jashemski, Wilhelmina F, and Stanley A. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius. New Rochelle, NY: Caratzas, 1993, pp. 84. worldcat

Gardens of the Roman Empire