POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM

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POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM

• Rescuing the Past for the Future

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Know the Syllabus

• Issues of Conservation and Reconstruction
• Italian and International contributions and
  responsibilities
• Impact of Tourism
• Ethical Issues

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CONSERVATION

• Is defined as the preservation of cultural
  material for the foreseeable future in a way that
  allows the maximum information to be retrieved by
  further study and analyses. Kate Foley
• Positive Aspects. It safeguards the physical
  fabric of the object from loss and deterioration
• Negative Aspects. Conservation can also be
  destructive- by treating the object it can
  destroy valuable information contained within the
  dirt or corrosion products surrounding the
  object.
• RECONSTRUCTION
• Measures to preserve historical materials and are
  based on accurate duplication of documented
  features through archaeology
• Positive Aspects. It provides greater impact and
  interests for tourists, creating almost outdoor
  museums
• Negative. It can be done in an unsympathetic way
  with materials not compatible. The
  reconstructions are criticized as largely
  imaginative since they reflect present mindedness
  rather than the object as it existed in ancient
  times.

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THE SECOND DEATH?

• The excavated cities are vast open-air museums
  which together include almost 2000 buildings,
  many kilometres of paths and roads, and thousands
  of square metres of frescoed walls and paved
  mosaic flooring still vulnerable to decay.
• There are many causes of deterioration and
  problems facing the sites of both Pompeii and
  Herculaneum. Poor restoration work on the sites
  has been done by local firms with little
  specialised knowledge of restoration techniques
  and in some places incorrect construction methods
  have been

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What are the Problems?

• Just when Pompeii was being rediscovered, it
  began to die its second death
• Henry de Saint-Blanquat
• Insufficient finances
• Lack of sufficient care in excavated parts
• Unsympathetic restorations of the past
• Nature weeds, acid rain, sunlight, wear and tear
• Human impact negatives of humans

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MONEY, MONEY MONEY

• 1997 a special law was passed giving the
  superintendant the right to retain gate money.
• 1997 a law declaring private donations tax
  deductible
• World Monument fund contributed 600,000 over 3
  years to finance an assessment of the site and
  draft a plan for restoration.
• Funding from the European Union is being used to
  create facilities such as bookshops, and
  restaurants, which in turn will generate funds
  for conservation projects

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European Union Any one read Italian??
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INTERNATIONAL AID TO THE RESCUE

• Justification for Inscription on UNESCO WORLD
  HERITAGE LIST
• The Committee decided to inscribe this property
  on the basis of criteria (iii), (iv) and (v),
  considering that the impressive remains of the
  towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and their
  associated villas, buried by the eruption of
  Vesuvius in AD 79, provide a complete and vivid
  picture of society and daily life at a specific
  moment in the past that is without parallel
  anywhere in the world.

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New focus

• New approaches to conservation are being
  implemented. Instead of concentrating on single
  buildings, restoration and conservation are
  focusing on whole insulae in order to achieve a
  more integrated result.

• "Towards an understanding of the shape of space
  at VIII.7.1-15, Pompeii preliminary results from
  the 2006 season." Steven Ellis, Gary Devore,
  2006..

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• Bureaucracy.
• Government red tape is blamed for some of the
  inefficiencies at Pompeii. If I have to fix a
  broken wall, said Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, the
  superintendent of the ruins, I first have to put
  out a tender for an architect to evaluate the
  damage.
• Then I have to put out a tender for a company to
  fix the wall. Then I have to see if I have enough
  money in my budget to pay for the repair, and
  then finally the work begins.

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Unsympathetic restoration of the past

• Amedeo Mauri director from 1924-1961 made an
  effort to improve the infrastructure of the two
  towns. Unfortunately many of the materials used
  were mostly concrete and steel which were not
  only different to the original materials but
  ultimately damaged the original structure even
  further.The alkaline in the masonry reacted with
  the ancient walls producing soluble salts which
  migrated to the surface causing the surface to
  crumble as in the House of the Coloured Capitals.
• Scaffolding and roof erected over the remains of
  a two-storey building in Pompeii.
• In the lower right of the slide, a Perspex sheet
  has been placed over a painted sign

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A case of poor restorationHouse of Meleager

• A new timber roof erected on the House of
  Meleager in Pompeii was poorly designed and could
  not support the weight of the tiles and collapsed
  

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INTERNATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGISTS TO THE RESCFUE

• In 1990 an International team of Archaeologists,
  Conservators planned a rescue mission for the
  decaying house.
• Rotting wooden beams have been replaced with new
  ones stained a rich dark brown, mosaic floors
  scrubbed to a bright white and glossy black, and
  wall paintings cleaned and restored to better
  show their deep red, yellow, and blue hues

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RISING DAMP/FLOODING OF SUBURBAN BATHS
Monica Castaldi and Giorgio Torrata, structural
engineers have been commissioned to study ways in
which the water rises in order to channel it
better in the future
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Drainage, Rising Damp and Humidity

• Herculaneums Suburban Baths are the best
  preserved bath complex.
• The main problems facing its preservation are
  humidity. The baths are in fact saturated both by
  surface water that drains off the domus above and
  by groundwater as it flows down to the sea.
• This has led to deterioration of the vault
  linings of the tepidarium and has caused the
  Superindendant to close the building to the public

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The Solution- Laser Technology

• Herculaneum Conservation Project
• In 2006 trials were carried out to see how laser
  scanning could help, not only in documentation
  but monitoring of progress of decay. This would
  allow more informed decisions about conservation
  but also preserve the rich visual material for
  future generations

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DONT WALK ON THE ??????
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INSTABILITY OF WALLS/ FLOORS AND CEILINGS

• House of the Wooden Shutters

• Palaestra in Herculaneum

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INVASION OF IVY
The roots of ivy are very invasive and contribute
to the disintegration of mortar and plaster. The
weight of such vegetation also damages
unsupported walls.
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NOXIOUS VEGETATION

• The Pompeian soil is very fertile and allows
  plants of all types to invade cracks in walls and
  open areas of dirt.
• Amongst the species of plants causing problems
  ,the acanthus whose leaves adorn corinthian
  columns and walls, wild strawberry, ivy, lichen
  and mosses. Henry De St Blanquet identified 31
  types of parasitic plants, which over time can
  dislodge tiles and mozaics, weaken mortar which
  destabilizes walls.
• Large root systems can also undermine foundations
  of buildings and invade drainage systems, adding
  to the existing problems of water damage.

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Solution REPLANT WITH THE ORIGINAL SPECIES

• A research project was designed by the University
  of Sheffield to retrieve evidence for the date,
  layout and landscaping of this major sanctuary.
  Work began in 1998 and was completed in 2007.

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REPLANTING ORCHARDS
Archaeologist Wilhemina Jashemski made an
extensive study of the gardens, orchards and
vineyards within the walls of Pompeii. Using
plaster casts of the cavities, which formed
around the roots of trees and vines and the
analysis of pollen found in the ash, Jashemski
was able to identify the plants that were growing
at the time of the eruption. This orchard
includes olive and fruit trees and grapevines. A
section of the city wall can be seen in the
foreground while Mount Vesuvius dominates the
background.  
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Restored Garden in House of Venus in the Shell
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Weathering, Wear and Tear

• Buildings, artifacts and surfaces have been
  exposed to the natural errosive processes of
  wind,sun and rain. In the 20th century the
  increasing acidic nature of rain from pollution
  has increased the damage to surfaces.

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EXPOSED LEAD PIPES
These exposed lead pipes carried water to houses
in this street in Pompeii. Judging by the
relative height of the doorstep and the
kerbstones, the pipes would have been quite close
to the surface when originally laid. Note the
evenly cut and precisely laid kerbstones.
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Exposure to sunlight and acid rain
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Solution Via DEll Abbondanza Project ( Italian
see pompeiisites.com )

• The restoration project avails itself of an
  advanced 3D technology supplied by the Kacyra
  Foundation of the American firm bearing the same
  name which invented the three-dimensional laser
  scan system. Thanks to the surveys which have
  been carried out, a 3D data bank of the area of
  the Fori Civili in Pompeii has been created. As a
  consequence, the project of restoration and
  protection of the wall paintings of Regio IX,
  Insulae 7 and 11 has been developed. The
  restoration work will be completed in January
  2005.

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Light Exposure to painted walls, frescoes and
paintings

• Problems with wall paintings is the high calcium
  content which dissolves under the influence of
  acid rain
• Artists in ancient Pompeii painted the town red
  2,000 years ago with a brilliant crimson pigment
  that dominated many of the doomed city's wall
  paintings. They were protected by a protective
  layer of punic wax
• Scientists now believe that a chemical reaction
  takes place between chlorine elements in rain and
  either the wax or the cinnibar to produce the
  blackening
• The wall at right shows the heavy damage due to
  blackening of cinnabar in the Poppea's villa in
  Oplontis

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Salts coming to the surface, fade and damage
outdoor frescoes.
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Stabilizing Frescoes

• Frescoed walls absorb moisture from the
  atmosphere. The moisture carries to the wall
  soluble surface salts that effloresce and injure
  the fresco pigments. To halt such injury
  water-permeable fixatives may be applied to help
  stabilize the pigment and prevent it from flaking
  off. A more drastic treatment is transfer, by
  which the mural and upper layer of plaster are
  cut away from the wall altogether and made fast
  to a new support. A major instance of successful
  transfer was carried out on many frescoes
  unearthed at Pompeii.

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PROTECTION AND STORAGE
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Feral DogsSolution Guards and strict
instructions to tourists, not to feed the dogs
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DONT FEED OR PAT THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Pigeon Poo!!! And its solutions- Trained Falcons
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Tourism-A Double edged Sword

• Each year Pompeii alone admits 2.5 million
  tourists through its gates.
• The general movement adds to the wearing down of
  street surfaces, particularly in frequented areas
  like the Forum complex.
• Accidental brushing as well as deliberate
  touching of walls, columns and frescoes allows
  perspiration and body oils to react with the
  ancient surfaces.
• Flash photography in the past has magnified the
  damage caused by light exposure.
• Looting and vandalism has currently become a
  major security problem for Management.

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RESTRICT AREAS AT RISKHave varying tour routes

• Less than ¼ of the excavated town is now
  accessible to the public.
• In 2006 only 16 monuments, villas and houses
  could be viewed as opposed to 60 in 1956

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STOLEN POMPEII FRESCOES-2003
Italian police have recovered two famous frescoes
that were stolen last weekend from a house in the
Roman city of Pompeii, near Naples. The 1st
Century frescoes were found at a construction
site close to the historic city, after roadblocks
were set up across the whole of Naples province.
The authorities said they had already been
packed, and that the aim may have been to smuggle
them abroad. Both panels were damaged during the
theft. Pompeii has a long record of art thefts.
A chronic lack of resources means there is a
shortage of security staff, which forces the
authorities to keep large areas of the site
closed to the public.
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Solutions Superintendant Guzzo

• 1. Guards
• 2. Upgrade CCTV system
• International Legislation and prosecution for
  traffiking in illicit cultural property.
• Significant houses fitted with alarms

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SOUND MANAGEMENT

• The combined sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum,
  Stabia and Oplontis are managed by Superindent de
  Archaeologica di Pompeii, a regional agency of
  the Italian Ministry of Culture and Environment.
• The current director is Pietro Guzzo whose
  initial approach was to place a moratorium on
  new excavations
• http//www.pompeiisites.org/ Click on Work in
  progress and make brief notes about the varied
  projects

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Choose at least 2 International Projects and make
brief notes about the aims, work carried out and
any results.
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PRACTISE RESPONSE
Sir Henri De Saint- Blanquat once said, that the
moment P H began to be excavated , they began
to die their second death. Discuss this statement
in relation to Conservation and Reconstruction
efforts in the two towns 600 words