RICERCA ITALIANA     

"Vesuviana": from documents to contexts

Università degli Studi di Bologna

Abstract

Aim of the project is to test methodologies and techniques of analysis for the reconstruction of the contexts in complex archaeological sites.
Ultimate target are:
1. the definition of an effective methodology of archaeological research, from the creation of a d complete documentary base (primary sources, survey of the actual remains, archaeological and archaeometrical analyses) to the reconstruction of the contexts (the excavation contexts before, and then the ancient use contexts) in archaeological sites characterized by high complexity, comparable to "palimpsests" because of their long lasting and complicated history (discovery, excavations, studies, restorations);
2. the application of this procedure:
a. to recompose and interpret the contexts (of structures, decorations and furnishing) of the houses in Herculaneum;
b. to study the connection between the shops / workshops and the houses in Pompeii.

The present experimentation starts from the experience of the "Progetto Pompei" (1999-2004, Dip. to di Archeologia, Università di Bologna), on the case study of the "Insula del Centenario" in Pompeii (IX 8), carried out by the same UR of the new project.
The present project follows the same guidelines of the "Progetto Pompei" (a successfully experience whose ending phase, aimed at the scientific edition, has been financed in the PRIN 2003).
The new project has the purpose of verifying the compatibility of the >>>

Principal Investigator

Daniela SCAGLIARINI Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA

Research Objectives

Fundamental aim is the reconstruction of the contexts: both excavation contexts, through the recovery and comparison of the primary sources, and the ancient contexts.
The Research Project follows the line of a recent and important current of studies, having the aim of the revision of the edited sources through a re-reading of the primary sources (diary of the excavations, inventories, objects from the ancient excavations).
Main case study of this "archaeology of the archaeology" is the Vesuvian region, mostly unpublished at the present day (an important exception is the Haueser in Pompeji Project: Strocka, Ehrhardt 1987).
The reachable results through this kind of approach are shown by the work carried out by Ch. PARSLOW, on the recover of the documentary sources of the age of Karl Weber on the public and private buildings in Herculaneum and Pompeii (1995), and by P.M. ALLISON (1992 ss., 2005), on the analysis of the contexts of discovery of the mobile furnishing (furniture and objects) in a significant sample of Pompeian houses.

For the present project two main sites have been selected: Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Both examples are examined from a wide perspective, on an urban scale, through contextual approach (both in data collection and in data interpretation), and with a thematic guideline: in Herculaneum, the decorative systems in the domestic spaces, in Pompeii, the house-shop systems.
In both fields, to the wide range >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

I – OBJECTS AND CONTEXTS
In the history of archaeological thought and in the methodological development of archaeology, the growing attention for the context is one of the main features of the last thirty years.
Focus of the interest is the context in all its characteristics: the physical context in the moment of the discovery; the reconstructive hypotheses of the ancient use contexts; the cultural contexts (of the contemporary and ancient observer).
This new trend, giving its name to a research current (Contextual Archaeology), characterizes all archaeological thought and practice, both for recently discovered sites, and for sites of long lasting and complicated history (real "palimpsests" for the discovery, conservation, studies).
The contextual approach must keep into consideration the peculiarity of those "palimpsest" sites, adapting the research methodologies.
Exemplar, in this case, is the experience of Vesuvian archaeology.
In the Vesuvian sample, the process of recovery and reconstruction of the contexts must start from a systematic and complete revision of the documentary base and of the edited data, from archive sources (diary of the excavations, inventories, objects from the ancient excavations) to the most recent bibliography.
The reachable results through this kind of approach are shown, for the Vesuvian archaeology, by the work carried out by Ch. PARSLOW, on the recovery of the documentary sources of the age of >>>