POMPEII, AN ANCIENT “WAITING BENCH” UNCOVERED AT THE FAMOUS VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES

The people waiting at the time were clients and labourers, rather than art lovers “the graffiti incised on walls by people bored with waiting”

Article published in the E-Journal of the excavations 

The long queues to see the most famous domus of Pompeii, such as those last Sunday with free entry when it was the most visited site in Italy, provide an image that would have been familiar two thousand years ago.

The recent excavations in the hitherto unexplored part of the Villa of the Mysteries, one of the most famous monuments not just of Pompeii but of the whole ancient world, have brought to light a waiting bench, situated on  the public street opposite the main entrance to the villa. However, the people waiting here were probably not visitors eager to admire the famous frescoes with the theme of the Dionysiac mysteries that have made the complex famous since the first excavations in 1909/10; instead, they were clients who had come to ask the master of the house for a favour, as well as labourers and beggars travelling along the road that connected Pompeii with the city now known as Boscoreale.

A Roman master would usually receive his clientes, people of lower social status who had ties of some sort with an eminent figure of local society, during the morning, as part of the ritual known as the salutatio. In exchange for favours, help in legal matters and small or large loans, they ensured their political support for him during the elections of the city’s administration.

 “During the long hours spent waiting, you never knew whether the master would receive you that day”, explains Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompei. “Maybe the previous evening he had stayed awake into the early hours and preferred to sleep, or he had something else to do. So some of the people waiting here, using a sharpened object or a piece of charcoal, wrote on the wall to pass the time: it is possible to read a date, but without the year, and a putative name. In a sense, it represents the other side of the marvellous frescoed rooms with views of the bay; who knows whether the people waiting in front of the main door would have ever seen something of the sort in their lives. Today, the sight of thousands of people from all over the world visiting the villa each day is wonderful: what was once a social privilege is now available to everyone, especially on the first Sunday of the month when entry to the site is completely free.”

The same benches can be found in front of other domus in Pompeii: rather like the full waiting room of a surgery, the crowded benches in front of the Pompeian domus were a source of pride: the more clients waiting outside the main entrance, the more important the owner of the house must have been.

The discovery is the result of the recent archaeological excavations carried out along the north-western side of the Villa of the Mysteries. They are part of the project to excavate and safeguard the area, which has been re-launched following the demolition of the illegal building that covered it, thanks to an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. 

“The resumption of excavations in the Villa of the Mysteries”, stated Nunzio Fragliasso, the Public Prosecutor for Torre Annunziata, “has proved possible thanks to the collaboration between the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Torre Annunziata. It marks the implemention of the agreements signed by the two institutions both to combat illegal trade in archaeological artefacts and to fund the demolition of illegal buildings constructed in the protected archaeological area run by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. As a result of the joint initiative, it has been possible to demolish the house with illegal building work overlying the Villa of the Mysteries and to demolish, with funding from the Archaeological Park, a completely illegal restaurant situated in the area in front of the Villa of the Mysteries, in order to ensure better access to the site by visitors”.

The aim of the excavation was twofold: on the one hand, to record the illegal excavations, thereby helping the Public Prosecutor’s Office in its investigation and, at the same time, to complete the excavation begun in the early twentieth century by Amedeo Maiuri, the then director of the excavation, and bring to light the remaining part of the villa. For further information, see https://pompeiisites.org/e-journal-degli-scavi-di-pompei/nuovi-scavi-nella-villa-dei-misteri-tutela-e-ricerca-in-unottica-di-archeologia-circolare/

The recent excavations have brought to light the original monumental entrance to the villa, situated along the road known as Via Superior, several rooms decorated in the Third Pompeian Style, with refined paintings on a black and yellow background with ornamental patterns of the highest quality, as well as to identify the part of the slave-quarters which is still buried.

 The large main entrance to the villa was surmounted by an arch (only part of which has survived), flanked by kerbstones and by a stretch of via Superior, paved in lava stone.

Opposite the entrance, a bench was discovered made of opus signinum (crushed ceramic and lime mortar, known in Italian as cocciopesto). Above the wall a rectangular vaulted cistern was also identified in relation to a water collection and drainage system.

The excavation also revealed with great precision the stratigraphic sequence of the eruption of AD  79, with the levels of pumice stone and pyroclastic flows still in situ which sealed the rooms of the villa. Beneath the level of the pumice stone, part of the paleosoil emerged that was arranged in shallow basins (“a conchette”), an agricultural technique that reflects the organisation of the rural countryside in Roman times.

The ongoing excavations will complete the investigation of the rooms of the villa that are still buried, in particular the slave-quarters, opening up new prospects for research into, and enhancement of, one of the most famous and fascinating residential complexes of ancient Pompeii.

Further analysis of the recent discoveries can be found in the article published today in the e-journal of the excavations of Pompeii https://pompeiisites.org/e-journal-degli-scavi-di-pompei/.

Meanwhile, the Park is searching for funds to finance the continuing excavations, involving private partners and sponsors, partly through the establishment of the Fundraising Office.

See the following link for the announcement of sponsorship deals:  https://pompeiisites.org/trasparenza/avviso-esplorativo-per-manifestazione-dinteresse-rivolto-ad-operatori-economici-interessati-a-stipulare-un-contratto-di-sponsorizzazione-per-il-finanziamento-nellambito-del-progetto-pompei-partne/