POST-ERUPTION EVIDENCE FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF HERCULANEUM

The first dates for the return of life to the Herculaneum area come from burials discovered in the volcanic layer that covered the site of the ancient town. Following an initial phase of open-air excavation between 1825 and 1860, which came to a halt when all the publicly-owned land had been dug (Fig. 1), a second campaign took place between 1869 and 1875, during which burials were recorded in the excavation diaries (Fiorelli, Reference Fiorelli1939: 10). The new excavations began in February 1869, when the State managed to purchase a plot of land that had been owned by the priest Pasquale ScognamiglioFootnote ⁹ and the works moved north from the area of the House of the Genius. This resumption of work was inaugurated by King Victor Emmanuel II, Prince Umberto and various government ministers, who were guided around the site by the General Superintendent of Excavations, Giuseppe Fiorelli.Footnote ¹⁰

Fig. 1. Plan of the archaeological site of Herculaneum showing the various phases of open-air excavation. (Plan: D. Camardo and M. Notomista.)

During this campaign various burials were discovered that had been cut into the layers of volcanic material at a height of more than 9 m above the Roman city and about 2.36 m below the modern ground level. On 17 April 1869, just two months after the resumption of work, the discovery of a tomb containing a human skeleton missing its feet and part of the legs was recorded at a height of 36 palmi (about 9.5 m) from the road surface of the Cardo III. Later, on 29 April, the diaries record the following entry: ‘Collected from a height of about 36 palmi from the road and nine palmi below the level of today's cultivated land, bone — numerous animal bones, perhaps pig, and these from the same level as the skeleton that was found on the 17th day of this month’.Footnote ¹¹ On 7 May 1869, in the same area, another burial was discovered with the:

In 1875, with all the land purchased by the public authorities having been completely excavated, works were suspended without either an insula or a domus having been completely uncovered.

It was not until 1927 that the excavation campaign carefully planned by Amedeo Maiuri marked a shift in our understanding of the ancient town. Within a few months the excavation of Herculaneum returned to the headlines of the world press for the first time since the eighteenth-century tunnelling, with its season of extraordinary discoveries and then the limited nineteenth-century open-air excavations. These new excavations had an enormous impact thanks both to the extraordinary discoveries that continued to be made and to Maiuri's organizational skills, as he managed to excavate, restore and open the domus to the public in extremely short time periods. This maintained a high level of interest in the site and made the most of the political context, in which the official glorification of Imperial Rome's greatness led to ongoing funding from the Fascist government (Camardo, Reference Camardo2006).

This ambitious archaeological programme for the site, carried out at a fast pace with the aim of getting down to the level of the Roman town, meant that little attention was paid to the discovery of some burials in the upper levels of the volcanic layer. These were concentrated in the area above Insula III, between the House of the Skeleton, the House of the Wooden Partition and the lower Decumanus. They were located in the first 3 m below ground level, at about 7–8 m above the ancient town. The discoveries were made between 1927 and 1929, and six post-eruption burials were found: three in the area of the House of the Skeleton and three in the area of the House of the Wooden Partition. It is not known if other burials were removed without being recorded during the earlier nineteenth-century excavations, but in total eight post-eruption burials and two pits, one containing animal bones and another with coloured marble fragments, were recorded in the excavation diaries between 1869 and 1929 in the area between the House of the Genius, the lower Decumanus and the House of the Wooden Partition, more or less at the same level (Fig. 2). Burials 1 and 3, despite the limited information provided by the excavation diaries, seem to have been simple earth-cut graves. In contrast, burials 4–9 were of the a cappuccina type, covered with tegulae or both tegulae and imbrices. The burials in the area of the House of the Genius/Cardo III were at a depth of between 1.60 and 2.36 m below ground level; those of the House of the Skeleton were at a depth of about 2 m, and the burials above the House of the Wooden Partition were down 2.70–3.50 m. The best documented burial was that excavated on 31 May 1927: a perspective drawing was made of this a cappuccina burial (Fig. 3). This was on a north–south orientation and was about 1.42 m long. Moreover, the excavation diaries record that a bronze coin was found under the chin of the skeleton: it had probably been placed in the deceased's mouth as an obolus for Charon. The coin was a quadrans of the Emperor Vespasian, datable to ad 72–3.Footnote ¹³ No other grave-goods were found within the burials, apart from burial 3, where a gold earring was found with the skeleton of a girl. Burial 7, discovered above the House of the Wooden Partition, was made up of four tiles on the sides with two more tegulae across the short ends and two imbrices, and was 1.77 m long. Outside the burial a broken pot was found containing a bronze coin.Footnote ¹⁴ This was a quadrans issued during the reign of Augustus, in 5 bc.Footnote ¹⁵

Fig. 2. The burials and waste pits found in the first metres of excavation between 1869 and 1927.

Fig. 3. Perspective drawing of the a cappuccina tomb found on 31 May 1927 (SANP Archive no. P649).

Among the interesting features of the other burials, burial 8 should be noted, even if it was damaged by root growth: it was found on 19 February 1929 above the House of the Wooden Partition, along the side of the house giving onto the lower Decumanus. It had the usual tile covering and within it the adult skeleton had been placed on a layer of mortar c. 1 cm thick, with the skull resting on an imbrex that functioned as a ‘pillow stone’. On 20 February burial 9 was discovered, 1.18 m away. This was only 1.1 m long and was made up of two tiles on either side, but without imbrices. There were no grave-goods, but on one of the tiles was engraved the letter C.Footnote ¹⁶ On 6 June 1927 in the area of the House of the Skeleton and only 1.30 m from burial 6, a pit was found at 2.25 m below ground level (almost the same level at burial 6) full of coloured marble fragments, one of which had a few partially legible incised letters.Footnote ¹⁷

Another report of a burial found on the site of ancient Herculaneum is provided by Michele Ruggiero (Reference Ruggiero1885: 521–2) who cited a document by Francesco La Vega giving the news of the discovery of a post-eruption burial about 250 m from those described above in the modern settlement of Resina, near the piazza dei Collimozzi (Fig. 4, no. 3).Footnote ¹⁸ On 28 August 1778 La Vega noted that: ‘this morning at about midday, during building works for a basement in Resina, just above the Colli mozzi, they began to uncover a coffin made of marble slabs with a skeleton inside … and as I was passing by, I saw that the coffin could not have been contemporary to those of Ercolano, but a lot older’. On 29 August they opened the tomb in La Vega's presence and he commented that: ‘nothing was found but a coffin made of white marble slabs with some tiles on top and poorly decorated, and inside just the simple bones of a human skeleton’. La Vega dated it to around the eleventh century, but emphasized that it was found only five or six palmi below ground level (Ruggiero, Reference Ruggiero1885: 521–2).Footnote ¹⁹

Fig. 4. Plan of the area between Portici and Torre del Greco showing the significant post-eruption discoveries. (Plan: D. Camardo and M. Notomista.)

1. Necropolis above Herculaneum's Insula III (second century ad); 2. Collimozzi monument (?); 3. Burial discovered near piazza dei Collimozzi (?); 4. Structures and burials discovered near Ercolano's central post office (?); 5. Bath-building discovered near the former Officine Fiore (second century ad); 6. Structures and burials discovered near Granatello di Portici (third century ad); 7. Burial discovered at Croce del Trio in Portici (second century ad); 8. Two burials discovered in via Paladino in Portici (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 9. Necropolis discovered in via Doglie in Ercolano (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 10. Necropolis discovered at the crossroads of via Marconi with via Tironi Moccia in Ercolano (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 11. Structures discovered near the Terma-Ginnasio in Torre del Greco (second–third centuries ad); 12. Structures and burials discovered near Calastro in Torre del Greco; 13. Two burials discovered in via Cappuccini in the Curtoli neighbourhood of Torre del Greco (?); 14. Necropolis discovered between Villa Sora and Torre di Bassano in Torre del Greco (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 15. Necropolis discovered in via Cavallerizza in the Curtoli neighbourhood of Torre del Greco (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 16. Funerary monument discovered in via Tripoli in Torre del Greco (fourth–fifth centuries ad); 17. Structures and burials discovered near Villa Sora (fourth–fifth centuries ad).

N.B.: when a date for the structures and burials is unknown the numbers are given in white on the plan.

Another post-ad 79 burial was discovered in October 1953 in the area of the Roman town's palaestra during building works for the access bridge into the archaeological area. Rainwater erosion revealed a burial located about 3.2 m below the modern ground level and 5 m above the palaestra's terrace above the cryptoporticus. Within it was discovered a 1.9 m tall skeleton, laid on its side in a semi-flexed position. This had been placed in an earth-cut grave. It had no grave-goods but within the cut the ‘base of a late antique terracotta container placed near the head of the skeleton’ was found.Footnote ²⁰

During the Bourbon-period explorations other post-eruption burials were discovered only a few dozen metres from the above. Andrea De Iorio referred to numerous burials on a higher level than the Roman town, found in the area where one of ancient Herculaneum's few funerary monuments was discovered but on a lower level (De Iorio, Reference De Iorio1827: 42–3, n. 3). This must have been along the modern corso Resina. Its exact position cannot be established, but Mario Pagano conjectured that it was located in the area of the existing post office, a few dozen metres from the historic entrance to the archaeological site (Pagano, Reference Pagano1996: 230). In this same area, on 16 February 1971, some masonry structures were found during works to build a school between the I traversa IV Novembre and the post office on corso Resina. The documentation mentions Roman structures at only 1 m below ground level.Footnote ²¹ This level rules out the possibility that these are pre-ad 79 remains of Herculaneum; instead they must be post-eruption structures.Footnote ²² De Iorio described the post-eruption burials as ‘simple Roman masonry tombs’ and emphasized that:

In summary, on the site of the ancient town buried by the ad 79 eruption, there seem to be two distinct burial areas. One includes the area between the Cardo III/lower Decumanus/Cardo IV of the Roman town (more or less corresponding to Insula III), where at various times during open-air excavations eight burials were uncovered — two earth-cut graves and six a cappuccina burials (Fig. 4, no. 1). None of them had grave-goods, with the exception of a pot with a coin inside, placed outside the tile covering of burial 6, while the coin in the mouth of the body in tomb 6 must have been meant as an obolus for Charon. The gold earring in burial 3, of a girl, must have been the personal possession of the deceased, rather than grave-goods.

The two coins can be dated to 5 bc and ad 72–3 respectively, and the a cappuccina structure of almost all the burials dates them to soon after the eruption, between the second and the third centuries ad. The pit containing animal bones and another pit full of coloured marble fragments on the same level as the burials seems to show that a small community had begun to live in the area only a few decades after the eruption. In particular, the pit with the coloured marble fragments and a fragment of an inscription was found less than 7 m above the ancient town, and it therefore would be likely that the fragments came from tunnel explorations of the buildings below. In fact, it would be difficult to explain the presence of these coloured marbles in the context of such a modest necropolis that may have held the remains of people who had returned to live on the site of the ancient town and who probably partially supported themselves by retrieving objects and marbles from the rich deposits that lay under their feet.

The second group of burials lay in the area of the palaestra, along corso Resina towards the southeast (Fig. 4, no. 4). De Iorio reported numerous masonry tombs discovered during the Bourbon-period excavations or during agricultural work, but these reports do not allow them to be dated with any great chronological precision, even if the only tomb discovered in that area in 1953 during the Maiuri excavations was on a level similar to that of the lower Decumanus necropolis. In addition, post-eruption structures were discovered in the same area in 1971 (Fig. 4, no. 4). Despite the fragmentary and incomplete data, it seems clear that these were not isolated burials but a cluster of necropoleis that may indicate a small settlement nearby, related to the road running from Naples to Stabiae that had been re-established by ad 120–1.

THE POST-ERUPTION BATH-BUILDING IN THE AREA OF THE FORMER OFFICINE FIORE

Another important sign that life was returning to this area comes from the archaeological remains found in 1955 during works to extend the Officine Fiore in via Gabella del Pesce in Ercolano (Fig. 4, no. 5). The area in question lies immediately southwest of the archaeological site (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. The area of the Officine Fiore (IGM 184II N-E).

On 11 November 1955 Maiuri, then Archaeological Superintendent for Campania, gave responsibility for overseeing the archaeological research to Honorary Inspector Virgilio Catalano. The complex was investigated only partially, and then destroyed by the construction of the Officine. Catalano wrote a report, drew a plan and a section of the building and, according to his notes, took numerous photographs of the excavations. At the time of writing, there is no trace of this documentation in the Archaeological Superintendency's archives, and only a plan and section of the building have been tracked down, thanks to research by Pagano, who published documents from Catalano's archive (Pagano, Reference Pagano1997: 25, fig. 5). The bath excavation was quickly forgotten, and only came back to attention when geological studies were undertaken of the Roman coastline. The Officine Fiore site was in fact used by Lorenzo Casertano and Eros Pinna to argue that before the ad 79 eruption this stretch of coast, located about 400 m southwest of the Villa of the Papyri, was above sea level (Casertano and Pinna, Reference Casertano and Pinna1969–70: 179). Nevertheless, analysis of the stratigraphy recorded by Catalano allows us to reject this hypothesis.

The section clearly shows that the building was not buried by the pyroclastic material of the ad 79 eruption, but rather was buried under more than 4 m of volcanic material when it had already fallen into ruin and was covered by about 0.5 m of alluvial and volcanic deposits (Fig. 6). The lava flow, traditionally thought to be from the 1631 eruption of Vesuvius, recently has been dated to a medieval event between the ninth and tenth centuries by research based on archaeomagnetic dating (Principe et al., Reference Principe, Tanguy, Arrighi, Palotti, Le Goff and Zoppi2004). The Officine Fiore structures were found below this volcanic level. They were filled and partially covered by a layer of alluvial sands. The masonry ruins had all been knocked down to a height of between 30 and 50 cm from the floor level. The absence of collapse within the room suggests that the structure had fallen into disuse and building materials had been removed before it was totally abandoned and gradually covered by alluvial material, later being sealed under several metres of lava from the medieval eruption of Vesuvius.

Fig. 6. Section of the bath-building excavated in 1955 by Virgilio Catalano (based on Pagano, Reference Pagano1997: 26, fig. 5); B. calidarium; C. hot room; D. tepidarium; f. channels for hot air; i. dividing wall between pools; l. maximum depth of the opus signinum (1.33 m); n. perimeter wall of the pools; q. terracotta channel; r. conduit for hot air.

In the margin of the key Catalano added a handwritten note ‘Medieval lava’, which changed the previous attribution of the lava layer that had sealed the bath ruins to the 1631 eruption. In the same way, ‘River deposits’ was used to describe the fill of the rooms and the partial burial of the building.

Moreover, the only known photograph, published by Maria Stella Pisapia (Reference Pisapia1981: 72–3), seems to show that the structures had been partially excavated before the Archaeological Superintendency's intervention (Fig. 7). An analysis of the plan offers a series of interesting elements for reconstructing the monument. Catalano excavated what remained of four rooms (Fig. 8, A–D), hypothesizing the existence of a fifth room (Fig. 8, E). These already had been partially destroyed at the north end by the construction works. All the rooms showed evidence for hot-air channels that allows this clearly to be identified as a bath-building. Rooms A and B were calidaria equipped with suspensurae formed of small terracotta columns (Fig. 6, f). The walls of room B housed tubes for hot air and the room had an apse on its south side. There must have been a labrum here, following a recurrent model found in calidaria, evidence for which is the finding in the apse area of a lead fistula (Fig. 8, u) measuring 32.4 cm in length and 4.7 cm in diameter. Equally important is the hypocaust situated under the apse (Fig. 8, f), which suggests that the praefurnium and other service rooms could be found in the non-excavated area to the southeast. Outside the apse wall another lead fistula was found, measuring 56.7 cm in length and 6 cm in diameter (Fig. 8, t). A door located in the southwest wall of room B connected through to room C, which was square in shape and had suspensurae made of brick tiles (Fig. 6). A door in the northwest wall of room C then gave access to room E, of which no remains existed when Catalano worked there.

Fig. 7. The remains of the bath-building during excavation. (From Pisapia, 1981: plate X, fig. 16.)

Fig. 8. Plan of the bath-building by Virgilio Catalano (based on Pagano, Reference Pagano1997: 26, fig. 5).

A–B. calidarium; C. hot room; D. tepidarium; E. room; f. hot air channel; g. pool; h. pool; i. dividing wall between the pools; m. steps; n. perimeter wall of the pools; o. bench; p. step (12 cm high); q. part of a terracotta channel; r. hot air conduit; s. hole in pavement; t. fistula; u. fistula.

Thanks to a door in the northeast wall it was possible to go from room A through to large room D, which had no suspensurae, but along the northeast and southwest walls it had benches a little less than 1 m long and 46 cm high (Fig. 8, o). On the back wall of the room two pools were found lined with opus signinum (Fig. 8, g–h), with steps providing access down into them (Fig. 8, m). These pools were lower than the room's floor level (Fig. 6) and were heated by hot air (Fig. 8, r). Remains of a terracotta channel, probably used for draining water from the pools, were seen below the pavement (Figs 6, q, and 8, q). This evidence probably allows the room to be identified as a tepidarium.

Some essential elements of the building are missing, such as the praefurnium and the apodyterium, which suggests that not all of it was discovered. In fact, even if important parts of the bath, such as an open space or portico, a frigidarium and an apodyterium, had been located in the northern area, which had been dug before Catalano arrived, the hot-air passage under the apse in the south wall of the calidarium (Fig. 8, room B, f) suggests that the praefurnium and service areas of the bath complex were located in that area.

There is no evidence that allows this bath-building to be linked to a villa. The absence of evidence of other structures suggests that the bath-building stood alone.Footnote ²³ The building's north orientation suggests that it did not face towards the sea but towards the volcano, perhaps in relationship to the ancient roadway that was reactivated after the ad 79 eruption.

The problem of the building's precise date remains, as we have only its stratigraphic depth to place it in the phase after the ad 79 eruption and to link it to the return of life to the area. Pagano suggested dating the building to the second century ad (Pagano, Reference Pagano1997: 25). Catalano brought a Tripolitana III amphora to the Herculaneum site storerooms in 1955, which can be dated to the third/fourth centuries ad (Keay, Reference Keay1984: 286–8) — the exact provenance of it is not known, but it may have come from works at the Officine Fiore as they were underway at that time.Footnote ²⁴

OTHER POST-ERUPTION FINDS IN THE HERCULANEUM AREA

Taking a broader view of the immediate surroundings of Herculaneum, widespread evidence of renewed human occupation in the area exists from the second century ad onwards. Following the reinstatement of the Naples–Sorrento road in ad 120–1, further resurfacing of the road was carried out at the beginning of the fourth century, as the milestone marked with the number VI shows, which was discovered at Ercolano near the convent of Sant'Agostino; it had been set in place in the period of Emperor Maxentius and reused under Constantine (CIL X 6937–8; Pisapia, Reference Pisapia1981: 71–2). Another later milestone had the names of the Emperors Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, and was preserved in the parish church of San Giovanni a Teduccio (CIL X 6936; Scatozza Höricht, Reference Scatozza Horicht1985: 141).

For the centuries following the eruption, archaeological evidence for human occupation in the area around Herculaneum takes the form of isolated tombs and necropoleis related to farms or small settlements. These have been found occasionally, particularly in the period following World War II, during the most intense period of urbanization in Torre del Greco, Ercolano and Portici. In most cases there are archive reports of finds, but due to the modest nature of the burials, which were either a cappuccina tombs or burials in amphorae without grave-goods, they were often removed before the Archaeological Superintendency arrived, and consequently they managed to record a much lower number of finds than actually occurred. Already in 1797 Carlo Rosini recounted that in the area of Granatello di Portici (less than 400 m from the Officine Fiore bath-building) remains of structures and various burials were discovered above the ad 79 eruption levels and under the lava believed to be that of 1631Footnote ²⁵ but which now is better dated to the ninth-/tenth-century eruption (Principe et al., Reference Principe, Tanguy, Arrighi, Palotti, Le Goff and Zoppi2004). From the same necropolis, amphora burials were discovered between 1879 and 1880 in the Granatello stone quarry. The burials were found at the same stratigraphic level, in the area between the quarry and the provincial road (Fig. 4, no. 6). At various points as the quarry face proceeded, two other amphora burials (at least one of which seems to have been an African amphora) and three a cappuccina tombs were discovered. In two of these a small pot containing an iron nail was found. The other a cappuccina burial had a marble slab on one side, with a funerary inscription of the third century ad (CIL X 8189). The slab was 3 cm thick, 35 cm wide and 5 cm long (Pagano, Reference Pagano1997: 25–9). Again within the modern town of Portici at Croce del Trio, a tomb was found with an inscription on it from T. Flavius Domitus to ‘Caerinia Restituta’ (CIL X 1477), revealing activity in the second century ad. The tomb was found at a depth of 4 m below ground level, and was formed of low walls covered with tiles. Near the head of the deceased various glass ampullae had been placed, and a bronze coin of Faustina the Younger was found in the mouth of the skeleton (Fig. 4, no. 7).Footnote ²⁶ In October 1954 in via Paladino, in the Riccia neighbourhood some 30 m away from corso Garibaldi, while the foundations for a four-storey apartment building were being laid, two amphora burials were found at about 4 m below ground level (Fig. 4, no. 8). In both cases the amphorae had been cut to insert the body. The first one contained the remains of an adult skeleton and had been closed by using pieces of another amphora. The second burial was of an adolescent. The two amphorae were African ware: one was identifiable as a Keay XXXI and the other as a Tripolitana II, datable to between the fourth and fifth centuries ad.Footnote ²⁷ A necropolis with amphora burials dating to the same period was excavated in 1975 by Pisapia in via Doglie in Ercolano, when the Case Gescal were built (Fig. 4, no. 9). The necropolis was made up of seven amphora burials and one a cappuccina tomb. Again in this case African amphorae allow us to date the necropolis to between the third and the fifth centuries ad (Pisapia, Reference Pisapia1981) (Figs 9–10).Footnote ²⁸ A further sign of occupation of the Herculaneum area in the late antique period is given by the discovery of an amphora burial placed above the ad 79 eruption levels between via Tironi di Moccia and via Marconi in Ercolano (Fig. 4, no. 10).Footnote ²⁹

Fig. 9. Amphora burial in the via Doglie necropolis in Ercolano during excavation (SANP Archive photo D22989 taken in November 1975).

Fig. 10. Amphora burial in the via Doglie necropolis in Ercolano during excavation (SANP Archive photo D23000 taken in November 1975).

Finally two sarcophagi that are reused in the church of the Madonna di Pugliano should be noted. In the chapel of Sant'Antonio the front slab of a marble sarcophagus can be seen depicting a bed under which two sphinxes face each other. These lie to the sides of a tabula ansata that must have contained the name of the deceased. The sarcophagus can be dated stylistically to the second century ad (Pisapia, Reference Pisapia1981: 73).Footnote ³⁰ Again in the same chapel, inserted into the wall above the slab already discussed, is another front panel of a strigillated marble sarcophagus with Corinthian columns on either side. In the centre is a clipeus carved with a Latin cross with expanded ends. Below the clipeus are two heavily abraded bas-relief human figures. The sarcophagus can be dated to the fifth/sixth centuries ad (Pisapia, Reference Pisapia1981: 73).Footnote ³¹

Moving south towards Torre del Greco, the same occupation model of isolated tombs and larger necropoleis can be seen for the post-ad 79 period, showing that from the second century ad onwards there was a repopulation of the area, with occasional villas between vici and pagi. The return of life after ad 79 can be seen at the monumental villa known as the Terma-Ginnasio, where some parts of a pre-eruption villa were reused and a new building was constructed; this was investigated by Giuseppe Novi in the nineteenth century (Novi, Reference Novi1895) (Fig. 4, no. 11). In the villa area, Pagano's archaeological research uncovered an exedra, probably belonging to a belvedere, that Novi already had identified and that had been built in the second/third centuries ad on the remains of a villa destroyed by the Vesuvian eruption (Pagano, Reference Pagano1993–4a: 262–3).

The other large pre-eruption villa located on the Torre del Greco coast is Villa Sora (Fig. 4, no. 17), where the discovery in the upper stratigraphic levels of pottery fragments dating to the second century ad shows a rapid return of life there, with a villa being built in the fourth century ad. This is related to a necropolis with a cappuccina and amphora burials (Pagano, Reference Pagano1995: 35) that was probably destroyed by the Pollena eruption, which traditionally is dated to ad 475, although it perhaps would be better dated to ad 505 (Rosi and Santacroce, Reference Rosi and Santacroce1983; Reference Rosi, Santacroce and Albore Livadie1986). A large necropolis with inhumations in a cappuccina tombs was found above the ad 79 levels in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, in the Calastro neighbourhood of Torre del Greco, near the historic Ospedale degli Incurabili, in an area where structures were also found (Balzano, Reference Balzano1688: 15) (Fig. 4, no. 12). Small necropoleis were found at Torre del Greco also in December 1914, in the Cappucini area of the Curtoli neighbourhood, on land owned by Miele Carmine de Vincenzo of Naples (Fig. 4, no. 13). During works two a cappuccina tombs on a bed of tiles were found. The burials had been dug into the ad 79 eruption levels, about 5 m below ground level.Footnote ³² Again in the Torre di Bassano neighbourhood, in an area between the Villa Sora and the Torre di Bassano, a late antique necropolis was discovered (Fig. 4, no. 14). The burials were in a cappuccina tombs and some contained lamps with an impressed Greek cross on them as grave-goods (Moltedo, Reference Moltedo1870: 16–18; Scatozza Höricht, Reference Scatozza Horicht1985: 164). Another necropolis was identified in 1957 in Torre del Greco in via Cavallerizza, on property owned by Giuseppe Lombardi di Luigi (Fig. 4, no. 15). Three amphora burials were discovered about 3 m below ground level; near them another oblong amphora and an unguentarium were found, along with small tuff blocks and tiles, perhaps belonging to other burials.Footnote ³³ Recent research has identified a late antique mausoleum as well at via Tripoli 22 at Torre del Greco (Fig. 4, no. 16). The structure, found 2.15 m below ground level, had been built above the ad 79 volcanic material. It consisted of a room in tuff opus vittatum that was excavated on three sides. Within the tomb was an a cappuccina burial on an east–west orientation, with a masonry chest in opus vittatum, without any grave-goods. Within it were the remains of an adult, with the head towards the east. On the beaten earth floor and outside the building, pottery fragments were found that can be dated to the second half of the fourth and the end of the fifth centuries ad (Pagano, Reference Pagano1993–4b). The mausoleum was covered with wooden beams that supported a floor slab paved with opus signinum, and which seems to have collapsed in the fifth century ad, perhaps following the earthquake related to the Pollena eruption of Vesuvius. This catastrophic event created enormous destruction in the Vesuvian area, forming a clear break from the previous period.

Further destruction was caused in the Campania region by ongoing skirmishes during the Gothic War, which ended with victory for the Byzantine army of Narses in the Battle of Mons Lactarius in ad 553, after a two-month stand-off between the two armies on the banks of the river Sarno, as Procopius relates in De Bello Gothico (IV.35) (Amarotta, Reference Amarotta1978). From the sixth century onwards, the literary sources disappear, as does the archaeological evidence that could give us information on the occupation of the area.Footnote ³⁴

THE MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT OF RESINA

Information on the Herculaneum area becomes available again only from the early medieval period. In fact, the oldest documents referring to the settlement of Resina date to the tenth century. Resina lay within the area controlled by the duchy of Naples, formally dependent on the Byzantine empire but ever more autonomous as the centuries went by (Luzzati Laganà, Reference Luzzati Laganà and Galasso1983). Resina is referred to in various documents from the tenth century onwards, often associated with a small river that must have flowed nearby and which was called the ribus de Risina.Footnote ³⁵

Various scholars, including Antonio Sogliano (Reference Sogliano1892) and Giovanni Battista Alfano (Reference Alfano1931), have tried to demonstrate that the name of Resina is connected to Rectina, the matron mentioned in Pliny the Younger's letter to Tacitus. However, Theodor Mommsen in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (vol. X (Reference Mommsen1883), p. 157) disagreed, as did Vincenzo Zappia (Reference Zappia1894). Even Catalano defended the classical origins of the name Resina in a philological study (Reference Catalano1953: 3–15), but it seems difficult to imagine that the matron referred to by Pliny, who lived before the eruption, could have given her name to a place that was totally destroyed by the eruption and that was probably uninhabited for decades before the area was reoccupied. Resettlement must have been carried out at least in part by people who came from other areas, and the archaeological evidence shows that the subsequent occupation pattern was much less complex than in the pre-eruption period. Furthermore, if the name Resina had derived from a Roman or late Roman predial toponym, to be placed chronologically after the ad 79 eruption, it would have taken the form of Retignano from Retinianum, with the common suffix –anus that we find in many other Campanian settlements that derive their names from Roman predials. This all suggests that the name Resina/Retina dates to the early medieval period. It is difficult to determine its meaning and origin, although it has been associated with a ‘resinous place’, meaning one that had many pine trees (Catalano, Reference Catalano1953: 10).Footnote ³⁶ According to Capasso, the name of the settlement comes from the river that ran alongside it.Footnote ³⁷ Rosini's hypothesis relates to the fishing nets ‘which were thrown in the fish-filled bay’ (Reference Rosini1797: 80), as well as other, more imaginative, ideas. Resina is mentioned in 1240 under Swabian rule as a place where one can find ‘good fish for making scapecia and gelatin’,Footnote ³⁸ so it was a place where fishing was common and where fish cooked alla scapece, a term that is still used today to mean fish garnished with salt and vinegar. By 1268 Resina was a settlement of a certain size, enough to be taxed by the Anjou court at a rate of three ounces, eighteen tari and seven grani (Chiarito, Reference Chiarito1762: 141). Resina, in this case written as Risino, is listed among the settlements of the area south of Naples in another document of the Anjou Chancellery for 1270–1 (Filangieri, Reference Filangieri1970: 232, document 1236). Again it appears in the records of the Anjou Chancellery for 1271–2, where one Petrus de Zoffo who lived in Villa Resine is given in a long list of people to be taxed in the Naples area (Filangieri, Reference Filangieri1957: 22, document 104).

The toponym of Pugliano has been recorded at Resina from the early medieval period in connection with the church of the Madonna di Pugliano. The church of Santa Maria di PuglianoFootnote ³⁹ is first mentioned in the documentary sources in the eleventh century in a document that shows it to be the beneficiary of land and goods.Footnote ⁴⁰ This name may come from Pollianum/Pullianum as a classical predial and related to a toponym from the APULUS ethnic group (Kajanto, Reference Kajanto1982: 192; Solin and Salomies, Reference Solin and Salomies1994: 294), tied to the people of Apulia who may have settled in Ercolano in the centuries following the eruption. There is also a more remote possibility that it derives from the ethnic group and cognomen APULEIANUS (Kajanto, Reference Kajanto1982: 140; Solin and Salomies, Reference Solin and Salomies1994: 294). The praenomen PULLUS should also be noted, which derives in turn from the cognomen PULLIO/PULIO and its derivative PULLANUS from the Latin noun pullus, meaning little or small (Kajanto, Reference Kajanto1982: 78, 108). Finally the sources also show the nomen PULLIUS in the form of PULLIENUS (Schulze, Reference Schulze1966: 424; Solin and Salomies, Reference Solin and Salomies1994: 151). So, in short, the name Pollianum/Pullianum could derive from a classical predial, probably to be placed chronologically after the ad 79 eruption and related to people coming from Apulia or to an individual of this name, seen in the sources as the cognomen PULLIO/PULIANUS and in the form of the nomen PULLIUS.Footnote ⁴¹

EVIDENCE FROM BELOW RESINA AND THE COLLIMOZZI MONUMENT

The documentary sources show that Resina existed at least from the early Middle Ages, and this date can be tied to the history of the discovery underneath it of the remains of the ancient town buried by the eruption of ad 79. Reports of finds and the discovery of marbles and statues from under Resina already in the fifteenth century were noted in the writings of Scipione Maffei, who wrote: ‘Precious antiques they tell me, have come out various times from there [below Ercolano], either accidentally while digging wells, or testing the ground in hope. It is known in Naples that there is no lack of people who have dug with this aim since the 1400s’ (Maffei, Reference Maffei1748: 33–4).

Even De Iorio noted that:

He remembered among other things an important monument, that of the Collimozzi in the modern piazza Fontana in Resina, which was decorated with Roman statues that had been found long before the Bourbon-period excavations.Footnote ⁴² And in a note he added: ‘The statues known as the Colllimozzi were set up in 1715, and were found in Vico di Mare in the well of Decio Spinetta Scognamiglio about a century earlier’ (De Iorio, Reference De Iorio1827: 17).Footnote ⁴³

A similar story is told of the discovery of statues before the beginning of systematic excavations in the manuscript of the parish priest of Resina from 1684 to 1727, Imperato del Paone:Footnote ⁴⁴

The Collimozzi statues were then removed from the monument and taken to the Portici museum together with the two heads that were held in the Pugliano church,Footnote ⁴⁸ while the other two heads were not recovered: one ended up in the villa of the Marchese Vallelonga in Torre del Greco (Fiorelli, Reference Fiorelli1861: 282; Carotenuto, Reference Carotenuto1980: 221). A view of the Collimozzi monument, with only three statues that still have their heads, can be seen in a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary in the church of the Madonna di Pugliano and can be dated to the 1580–90s (Ferraro, Reference Ferraro2007b: 67) (Figs 11–12).Footnote ⁴⁹ At the same time another image of the monument can be found in a painting of Saint Veneranda from the second half of the seventeenth century held in the same church. Here, at the feet of the saint, a rather precise depiction of the monument can be seen as a Renaissance-style structure, similar to Roman triumphal arches, with three arches held on pilasters, on which appear four togate statues, all already without their heads (Ferraro, Reference Ferraro2007b: 69) (Figs 13–14).

Fig. 11. Painting of Our Lady of the Rosary from the 1580–90s from the church of the Madonna di Pugliano. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

Fig. 12. Detail of the lower part of the painting showing the Resina landscape and the arched monument of the Collimozzi decorated with three statues that still have their heads. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

Fig. 13. Painting of Saint Veneranda, church of the Madonna di Pugliano, dated to the mid-seventeenth century. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

Fig. 14. Detail of the lower left part of the painting of Saint Veneranda with the image of the Collimozzi monument made up of three archways on which were placed four headless togate statues. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

From what has been said, it seems clear that the beginning of the exploration of Herculaneum did not start in 1738, as has been accepted widely, but needs to be pushed back in time, probably by centuries. We have in fact reports of inscriptions recovered in the centuries before the beginning of the town's excavation, such as that of Volasennia C.f. Tertia (CIL X 1441), wife of Marcus Nonius Balbus, found at the end of the seventeenth century in the area of Herculaneum's basilica (Allroggen-Bedel, Reference Allroggen-Bedel1974: 102).

DISCOVERIES MADE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE HERCULANEUM CONSERVATION PROJECT

Evidence for historic explorations under Ercolano has emerged also during work undertaken as part of the Herculaneum Conservation Project. In fact, on two occasions we came across the remains of tunnels and shafts that seemed centuries older than the systematic exploration of the Roman town that was begun in 1738 by King Charles of Bourbon.

During clearance of a Bourbon-period tunnel leading from the crossroads between the Cardo III and the Decumanus Maximus towards the theatre, we found an older square-sectioned shaft, furnished with footholds. This was earlier than the Bourbon-period tunnel and had been cut by it. The shaft began at modern ground level in Vico Mare, in an area that we know was part of Resina from the early medieval period.Footnote ⁵⁰ The shaft had then been sealed and, at least from the eighteenth century, buildings had been constructed on top, the ruins of which were knocked down in 2007. To make the shaft safe it was partially cleared of its fill of fairly compact earth mixed with ceramic fragments. It is interesting to note that much of the pottery from the fill could be dated to the end of the sixteenth/beginning of the seventeenth centuries. The shaft went down to the Roman ground level and had not been dug to obtain groundwater but to access the ancient ruins. The fill was shown to have few residual finds, with only one fragment of a Sicilian lamp from the second half of the seventh century ad, a small collection of late medieval glazed wares and proto-maiolica from the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries, and a rich corpus of glazed kitchen-ware and enamel glazed pottery of the sixteenth century, with some better quality fragments such as maiolica jugs and trays decorated in the compendiario style, a fragment of white Faenza maiolica, and a plate of polychrome maiolica from the so-called ‘Harlequin’ class of the Montelupo production (1590–1630), with the standard colourful depiction of a soldier within a lively landscape (Fig. 15).

Fig. 15. Material datable to the end of the sixteenth/beginning of the seventeenth centuries from the fill of the well located near to the crossroads between Herculaneum's Cardo III and the Decumanus Maximus. a. Polychrome maiolica fragments; b. glazed cook-ware pot; c. compendiario tray and Faenza maiolica pot; d. Montelupo maiolica figurative plate. (Photo: D. Camardo.) (Plate 9 in colour section at the back of the issue)

We were able also to document tunnelling down from the modern level to the ancient city in a period before the Bourbons in rooms 12–13 of the terraces above the palaestra. Here, during cleaning works on the escarpment in 2006, the fill of the remaining part of a tunnel was excavated. The tunnel had cut through the room immediately above the back wall, at about 2 m above the ancient floor level (Fig. 16). The fill contained numerous fragments of medieval ceramics, datable to the second half of the thirteenth century, and was not contaminated with more recent pottery finds. Glazed ceramic fragments and ramina manganese rosso ware were found, together with older proto-maiolica forms (Fig. 17). Later works to make the Roman structures safe allowed us to reconstruct the tunnel that departed from the bottom of a vertical shaft. It was circular in section, with a 1.2 m diameter, but was conserved only partially in its end section.Footnote ⁵¹ When it was dug, it had cut the north corner of the existing double wall between rooms 12 and 13 of the Roman building (Fig. 18). The fill was preserved for about 80 cm, and once it was emptied the bottom was exposed and a foothold could be seen that would have aided climbing up and down the shaft. It ended at about 1.8 m from the floor of room 13, and almost on the same level a tunnel set off on in an east–west direction, in the fill of which other medieval fragments were found in 2006. An entire glazed vessel and two spiral-ware fragments were found in the shaft's fill, along with painted and glazed pottery and fragments of proto-maiolica dating to the second half of the thirteenth century (Fig. 19). In this case, too, no more recent ceramics were found and the residual finds were limited to two fragments of painted Roman plaster.

Fig. 16. Plan of the northern end of Herculaneum's palaestra showing the medieval shaft and tunnel. (Plan: D. Camardo and M. Notomista.)

Fig. 17. Fragments of glazed (A–B) and proto-maiolica (C) ceramics, from the second half of the thirteenth century, found in the fill of the tunnel. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

Fig. 18. The medieval shaft that ended roughly 1.8 m from the floor of the Roman room. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

Fig. 19. Medieval finds of glazed pottery found in the shaft fill. a–b: glazed proto-maiolica vessel; c: glazed spiral-ware fragment; d: glazed ramina manganese rosso ware fragment. (Photo: D. Camardo.)

The discovery of the shaft and tunnel, along with the medieval pottery, indicates that archaeological excavations took place in the medieval period and were carried out in order to reach the buried structures of the ancient city. In the second half of the thirteenth century the palaestra building was explored, probably because it was the nearest building of ancient Herculaneum to the modern ground level, being buried by only 4–5 m of volcanic material. The shaft and the tunnel had been dug with the intention of finding objects or perhaps of recovering ancient building materials and marbles, which decorated some of the rooms of this building complex. Once the tunnel and the shaft were abandoned, they were filled with waste material, in which were found the above-mentioned medieval fragments.Footnote ⁵² It seems a reasonable assumption to connect this exploration to medieval Resina's inhabitants, who must have searched over the centuries for building materials, even if it was not systematic or continuous.

Often in the Bourbon-period excavation reports there are references to the fact that the excavators had found tunnels that appeared to have been made much earlier. In fact on 16 October 1745, Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre reported that: ‘in this place, in which we have found many ancient caverns, others continue to appear, all full of sand and naturally created many centuries ago’ (Pagano, Reference Pagano2005: 60).Footnote ⁵³ Perhaps it was precisely the availability of marble under the city that led to the tradition of marble craftsmen that was still very much alive in eighteenth-century Resina.Footnote ⁵⁴

The story of Prince d'Elboeuf's acquisition of ancient marbles, which led to the widespread news of the discovery of Herculaneum's theatre, comes in two different versions. The first tells that he was looking for marble to grind into powder for the stucco work on his palace, which was being built at Granatello di Portici, and the local inhabitants brought him marble pieces found during the digging of wells in Resina. Another version tells how a Neapolitan marble-worker advised the prince to decorate his palace with

This version is confirmed by the Pompeii excavation diaries, where it is mentioned that d'Elboeuf was directed by a marble-worker to the well in Resina owned by ‘Enzechetta’, from which coloured marbles had been removed already in the past and used to decorate various chapels in Neapolitan churches (Fiorelli, Reference Fiorelli1861: 285). Therefore, this tradition of retrieving precious materials seems to have early origins and to be connected to the ‘artificial quarry’ created by Vesuvius underneath Resina.