Pompeii

Pompei

Italy · Campania

Ancient cityExcavation ongoingUNESCO · 1997
Approximate period600 BCE — 79 CERoman Republican and Imperial periods See on the map ↓

In brief

Buried in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, the city preserves Roman urban life through its buildings and everyday objects. Excavations that began in the eighteenth century have uncovered houses, public buildings and workshops.

What was found?

  • 1Banquet hall with black walls

    Figures associated with myths of the Trojan War are painted on the hall's walls. The scene of Helena and Paris is also identified by Greek names; the decoration shows the place of Greek mythology in Roman houses.

  • 2Forum and basilica

    The city's main square and the surrounding basilica and temples have been preserved. These buildings allow the spatial organization of public life in the Roman city to be studied.

  • 3Amphitheater

    It is one of the large performance buildings uncovered in the city. It documents the place of communal entertainment in urban architecture.

  • 4Graffiti

    Election slogans and personal messages appear on the walls. Alongside official monuments, they preserve the everyday words of the city's inhabitants.

What does it point to?

Pompeii is a Roman city where houses, shops, public buildings, and streets can be studied together. Paintings and graffiti preserve traces of political competition and personal relationships alongside lavish domestic life.

What did it teach us?

  1. It showed how residential, commercial, religious, and entertainment spaces were arranged together in a Roman city.
  2. It documented that election propaganda was displayed on street walls.
  3. It provided tangible evidence of the use of Greek mythology in the painted decorative programs of Roman houses.

Images

Pompeii Basilica, colonnade at the entrance
Marco Ober · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Black frescoed wall with mosaic floor in Pompeii watercolor by Luigi Bazzani
Luigi Bazzani · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Pompeii (4873744179)
Glen Scarborough from The Central Coast, Australia · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Videos

Latest news / selected archive

In 2024, excavations in Regio IX uncovered a black-walled banqueting hall with depictions of Paris and Helen, and Apollo and Cassandra.

Record

Culture
Oscan, Samnite and Roman
First modern dig
1748
Team / historical
Archaeological Park of Pompeii
Coordinates
40.7500°, 14.4861°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. en.wikipedia.org
  3. Pompeii Arkeoloji Parkı – E-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei

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