Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:19:48.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cisterns, drainage and lavatories in Pompeian houses, Casa del Granduca (VII.4.56)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Frank Sear
Get access

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Articles
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 72 , November 2004 , pp. 125 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Most of the fieldwork took place in the period 1978–90, and was financed by an Australian Research Council grant awarded to the joint Directors of the Australian Pompeii project, Prof. J.-P. Descoeudres, then at the University of Sydney and now at the University of Geneva, and the present author, then at the University of Adelaide and now at the University of Melbourne. The project had the dual aims of documenting the architecture and the wall-paintings of each house. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr M G. Cerulli Irelli and Prof. B. Conticello, the Superintendents who granted us permission to work at Pompeii, and Dr S. de Caro, Director of the excavations, for his constant help and advice. Casa dei Capitelli Colorati and Casa della Caccia Antica were surveyed by the late Richard Apperly of the University of New South Wales. The survey of Casa del Granduca was the work of Richard Apperly and Michael Pomeroy Smith from Sydney, and Janet DeLaine and Zig Kapelis, both at the University of Adelaide at the time. Casa dei Capitelli Figurati was surveyed by Richard Apperly and Zig Kapelis. A second article is being prepared that will deal with the water systems of Casa dei Capitelli Colorati, Casa della Caccia Antica and Casa dei Capitelli Figurati.

2 Gierow, M. Staub, Casa del Granduca und Casa dei Capitelli Figurati (Häuser in Pompeji 7) (Munich, 1994)Google Scholar; Allison, P. and Sear, F., Casa della Caccia Antica (Häuser in Pompeji 11) (Munich, 2002)Google Scholar.

3 V. Kockel, ‘Funde und Forschungen in den Vesuvstädten II’, Archäologischer Anzeiger (1986), 501–5; Descoeudres, J.-P. and Sear, F., ‘The Australian Expedition to Pompeii 1978–1986’, Rivista di Studi Pompeiani 1 (1987), 11–37Google Scholar.

4 Descoeudres, J.-P. (ed.), Pompeii Revisited, the Life and Death of a Roman Town (Sydney, 1994)Google Scholar.

5 I have been encouraged to publish this material by Dr Gemma Jansen of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, who has studied water systems in Herculaneum and was greatly interested in our work at Pompeii. She was kind enough to read this article and make many helpful suggestions, as well as allowing me to read an article of hers on the water-pipe systems of Pompeii that later appeared in de Haan, N. and Jansen, G.C.M. (eds), Cura Aquarum in Campania. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress on the History of Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering in the Mediterranean Region, Pompeii 1–8 October 1994 (BABesch supplement 4) (Leiden, 1996)Google Scholar.

6 I am very grateful to Dr de Caro who allowed us to make a number of soundings under the atrium floor in Casa del Granduca, with the result that our knowledge of its water system, although incomplete, is much more detailed than for any other house.

7 Staub Gierow, Casa del Granduca (above, n. 2), 73, dated the atrium of Casa dei Capitelli Figurati to c. 120 BC.

8 Staub Gierow, Casa del Granduca (above, n. 2), 40. However, she seems to have believed that this wall is contemporary with the impluvium, which must date to 100–70 BC.

9 According to Roman law, a house owner had a right to profit by the light from a neighbour's land (servitus luminis) and if the north peristyle of Casa dei Capitelli did not exist when Casa della Caccia Antica's atrium was built, Casa della Caccia Antica's owners could have purchased the right to insert windows. When the north peristyle was built Casa della Caccia Antica could have claimed servitus ne luminibus officiatur, which would have been countered by Casa dei Capitelli Colorati's claim of ius officiendi luminibus vicini. CIL IV 4713 records such a right to insert windows.

10 Dr de Caro tells me that there is evidence that much of the land on the south side of Via della Fortuna was used for agricultural purposes until the second century BC.

11 An examination of the kerbstones around the east side of the Insula is revealing. The kerbing in front of the main entrance of Casa dei Capitelli Colorati on Via degli Augustali is of good-quality black lava blocks, and there is a clear change in the kerbing at the boundary with the neighbouring house on Via degli Augustali (VII.4.29). The kerbstones in front of the Via della Fortuna façade of Casa dei Capitelli Colorati, on the other hand, are of rough limestone blocks, which is not surprising as the Via della Fortuna façade was only a back entrance to Casa dei Capitelli Colorati. However, where Casa della Caccia Antica's property starts, opposite the outer northwestern angle of room 23, the kerbstones change to fine black lava blocks, which is to be expected given that they were opposite the front door of the house. These lava kerbstones run the whole width of the Casa della Caccia Antica façade and round the corner into Vicolo Storto, where they stop after a few metres, directly opposite the edge of the north jamb of the doorway into shop 25. In front of the rest of the Casa della Caccia Antica façade on Vicolo Storto the kerbstones are of rough limestone, which I take to mean that the owners of Casa della Caccia Antica were not concerned about the quality of the paving because this was simply a narrow alley with only shops along it. However, they change again to lava blocks at a bend in the road almost opposite the north jamb of the doorway into doorway 39 (room 69) of Casa dei Capitelli Colorati. The point where they change is exactly on a line with the north walls of rooms 25–8 of Casa dei Capitelli Colorati. This may suggest that the Casa della Caccia Antica property originally extended as far as this line.

12 For evidence of overcrowding in the mid-first century AD, see Ling, R., ‘The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii: interim report’, Antiquaries Journal 63 (1983). 54CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘It is clear that in our insula, as in many others, pressures on living space were by the mid first century A.D. forcing property owners or their tenants to build upwards where previously they had been able to find sufficient accommodation at ground-floor level’.

13 Bastet, F.L. and de Vos, M., Il terzo stile pompeiano (Archaeologische Studien van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome IV) (Rome, 1979), 55–6Google Scholar.

14 Staub Gierow, Casa del Granduca (above, n. 2), 40–2.

15 I am grateful to Dr Jansen for this information.

16 Fadda, N., ‘Gli impluvi modanati delle case di Pompei’, in Andreae, B. and Kyrieleis, H., Neue Forschungen in Pompeji (Recklinghausen, 1975), 165Google Scholar.

17 Avellino, F.M., ‘Descrizione di una casa disotterata in Pompei nell'anno 1833 etc’, Memorie della Regale Accademia Ercolanese di Archeologia 3 (1843), 362Google Scholar.

18 Jansen, G., in van Binnebek, M.C. and de Kind, R., ‘The Casa dell'Atrio Corinzio and the Casa del Sacello di Legno at Herculaneum’, Cronache Ercolanesi 26 (1996), 195–8Google Scholar.

19 Mention has already been made of the overcrowding that was beginning to make itself felt in the mid-first century AD — see above, n. 12.

20 Avellino, ‘Descrizione di una casa’ (above, n. 17), 386–414, pl. 10.

21 Bastet and de Vos, Il terzo stile (above, n. 13), 55–6.

22 Dr Jansen has suggested that this wood may have belonged to a bucket or a windlass.

23 Such setting-out lines are not uncommon; see Claridge, A., ‘Le scanalature delle colonne’, in Cozza, L., Tempio di Adriano (Rome, 1982), 27–30Google Scholar.

24 A. Maiuri, Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (1941), 398–404. Paul Arthur's excavations along the west side of the Forum have revealed solid foundations for the travertine colonnade but no evidence for an older tufa colonnade.

25 Maiuri, Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (above, n. 24), 204.

26 Maiuri believed that the columns were replaced at the time of Claudius or Nero, when the public offices were built. The Casa del Granduca discovery may point to a somewhat earlier date.

27 Lauter, H., ‘Zur späthellenistischen Baukunst in Mittelitalien’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 94 (1979), 416–17Google Scholar.

28 According to Jansen 22 lead distribution boxes have been found: Jansen, G., ‘Water pipe systems in the houses of Pompeii’, in Koloski-Ostrow, A.O. (ed.), Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City (Archaeological Institute of America Colloquia and Conference Papers 3) (Dubuque (Iowa), 2001), 29–31Google Scholar.

29 There is a small fountain jet at the edge of the impluvium of the House of the Silver Wedding in Pompeii: Jashemski, W., The Gardens of Pompeii (New York, 1979), 90–1Google Scholar. Jansen, ‘Water pipe systems’ (above, n. 28), 27–40, has mentioned several other examples of fountains in atria.

30 Avellino, ‘Descrizione di una casa’ (above, n. 17), 380, n. 1.

31 Bechi, G., ‘Relazione degli scavi di Pompei da marzo 1834 ad aprile 1835’, Real Museo Borbonico 11 (1835), 1–11Google Scholar.

32 Egyptian blue is a pigment, CaCuSi4O10, made by heating together silica, a copper compound (usually malachite), calcium carbonate and natron (Lucas, A. and Harris, J.R., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (London, 1934), 340–1)Google Scholar. It is made as a paste and then fired at a temperature of 850 C. The coloured compound is formed in the heating and it can be rolled or shaped into blocks or balls. It is not a glass. It was known as early as the 18th Dynasty, although Vitruvius (who calls it caeruleum) says it was invented at Alexandria (De Architectura 7.2.1). Presumably Theophrastus means Egyptian blue when he speaks of kuanos (De Lapidibus 98). Pliny also mentions it (Naturalis Historia 33, 57–8). It was transported in pellets between 1 and 1.5 cm long (Frost, H., The Mortar Wreck in Mellieha Bay (London, 1969), 13, 27 and 29Google Scholar), and the smaller kind were used in wall mosaics from the first century BC onwards.

33 Sear, F.B., Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics (Römische Mitteilungen Ergänzungsheft 23) (Heidelberg, 1977), 22Google Scholar.

34 For these materials, see Sear, F., ‘Frammenti di mosaico dalla Villa «dei Centroni»’, Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia. Rendiconti 45 (1972–1973), 29–35Google Scholar; Sear, F., ‘The earliest wall mosaics in Italy’, Papers of the British School at Rome 43 (1975), 83–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Avellino, ‘Descrizione di una casa’ (above, n. 17), 384.

36 Avellino, ‘Descrizione di una casa’ (above, n. 17), 375.

37 I owe this suggestion to Dr Jansen.

38 Pernice, E., Hellenistische Tische (Berlin, 1932), 33Google Scholar, Taf. 22.1.

39 Dr Jansen no longer believes in the continual flush toilet, as described in ‘Water systems and sanitation in the houses of Herculaneum’, Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome (Antiquity) 50 (1991), 156Google Scholar. She points to similar water-pipes in Casa del Fauno and Casa delle Nozze d'Argento. In the latter case the water fed the bronze sponge basin.

40 For an illustration of such a toilet and the step in front of it, see Jansen, ‘Water systems’ (above, n. 39), fig. 16.

41 There is a great deal of evidence for upstairs lavatories both at Pompeii and Herculaneum. See Jansen, ‘Water systems’ (above, n. 39), 158. See also Jansen, G., ‘Private toilets at Pompeii: appearance and operation’, in Bon, S.E. and Jones, R. (eds), Sequence and Space in Pompeii (Oxford, 1997), 121–34Google Scholar.

42 I am grateful to Dr Jansen for this information.

43 For a photograph of these waterspouts in operation, see Jansen, ‘Water systems’ (above, n. 39), 149, fig. 5.

44 We found two in Casa dei Capitelli Colorati and one each in Casa della Caccia Antica, Casa dei Capitelli Figurati and Casa del Granduca.

45 House IX 3, 19, 20. Jansen, ‘Water pipe systems’ (above, n. 28), 40, n. 39.

46 Jansen (above, n. 18), 195–6.

47 The houses are Casa del Torello, Casa di Caecilius Iucundus, Casa del Labirinto, Casa dei Vettii, Casa dell'Orso, Casa dei Postumi, Casa di M. Lucretius and perhaps Casa dei Obelli Firmi. Jansen, ‘Water pipe systems’ (above, n. 28), 40, n. 41.

48 Wilson, A., ‘Running water and social status’, in Horton, M. and Wiedemann, T. (eds), North Africa from Antiquity to Islam (Centre for Mediterranean Studies Occasional Paper) (Bristol, 1995), 52–6Google Scholar.

49 Sear, Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics (above, n. 33), 23–4.

50 H. Eschebach, ‘Die Gebrauchswasserversorgung des antiken Pompeji’, Antike Welt (1979), 15, fig. 22.