"This volume examines the pivotal role of movement, visibility, and experience within Pompeian houses as a major factor determining house form, the use of space, and the manner, meaning, and modalities of domestic daily life, through the application of GIS-based analysis. Through close consideration of ancient literature, detailed explanations of methodology, and exploration of results, Michael Anderson provides new perspectives on Pompeian domestic space including room types and household activities that rarely feature in the discussion of ancient housing. Readers gain a better understanding of priorities in the design of Pompeian houses, the degree to which daily life was interrupted by earthquake damage in the site's final years, and evolving motivations behind wall painting decoration. It not only explores how Pompeian houses reflected the needs of everyday life as imagined by their architects, but also how these spaces served to influence and control daily activities and ultimately how they were transformed by the spatial and visual requirements of domestic life. Space, Movement, and Visibility in Pompeian Houses is suitable for students and scholars of Pompeian houses and domestic life, Roman architecture and urbanism, spatial analysis and space syntax"--
Author(s): Michael A Anderson
Series: Studies in Roman Space and Urbanism
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 261
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Figures
Tables
Preface and Acknowledgements
1. The problem of Pompeian houses
Pompeian houses or 'the Roman house'?
The traditional architectural-developmental narrative
Explaining room use
Exploring the distribution of finds
Roman houses as reflection of Roman society
The impact of the 'spatial turn'
Re-populating Roman houses
Visual impression and identity
The symbolic significance of houses
The role of actors and agency
Conclusions
Notes
2. Reconstructing activities in Roman (and Pompeian) houses
Reconstructing Roman temporal patterns
Roman hours of the day
The daily life of the 'elite male'
Expanding the elite male's daily activities
Other members of the household
The materfamilias and other elite women
Materfamilias as household manager
Extensive financial dealings
The celebrated task of wool working
Afternoon activities of the elite female
The cena
Daily activities in the lives of slaves and others associated with the house
Cleaning, fetching water, and removing rubbish
The afternoon to evening meal
Commercial endevours
Household and agricultural production
Freedmen, lodgers, and other dependents
Children and the extended family
Older children and elderly relatives
Non-elite households
Activities of the night
Interruptions to the pattern
Conclusions
Notes
3. The analysis of domestic space
Space syntax-inspired methodology
Considering movement
'Extended' mean depth (eMD) and access heatmaps
The analysis of visibility
GIS and visibility
The effect of closed doorways
Beyond space syntax
The sample and sources employed
Decoration, finds, and fixtures
Finds and decoration in GIS
Considerations concerning taphonomy and deposition
Notes
4. Visitors, inhabitants, space, and power in Pompeian houses
Elite reception in Pompeian houses
The fauces-atrium-tablinum-peristyle axis revisited
Power and the view from the front door
Vistas from reception rooms
Conflicting priorities: daily activity vs. elite display
Vistas onto low-status activities
'Keeping up with the Julii' - doorways and deceptions
Considering the rest of the house
Atria and peristyles
Cubicula
Locating sleeping
Situating storage
Kitchens, 'service areas', and bath suites
Centrally accessible kitchens
Strategies for minimising the impact of kitchen-related nuisances
Infrastructural efficiency between bath suites, kitchens, and toilets
Tensions between form and function
The impact of building inertia
Notes
5. Case studies
Casa di M. Fabius Amandius (I 7, 2.3) (Fig. 5.1)
Excavated: 1911f, 1923ff
Casetta di Roma (VI 16, 35) (Fig. 5.2)
Excavated: 1904
Casa del Principe di Napoli (VI 15, 7.8) (Fig. 5.3)
Excavated: 1896f
Casa di A. Trebius Valens (III 2, 1.a) (Fig. 5.4)
Excavated: 1913, 1915f
Casa di Julius Polybius (IX 13, 1-3) (Fig. 5.5)
Excavated: 1913, 1970f
Casa di M. Obellius Firmus (IX 14, 2.4.b) (Fig. 5.6)
Excavated: 1888, 1905, 1910
Conclusions
Notes
6. Spatial-visual analysis and post-earthquake Pompeii
Reconsidering earthquake disruption
Evidence of disruption and continuity
Building materials and persisting daily life
Rebuilding as the only apparent priority
Storage of salvaged items
Other signs of disruption
Case Studies
The Casa di Julius Polybius
The Casa di Trebius Valens
Persistence or abandonment?
Houses relinquished to restoration?
Conclusions
Notes
7. The spatial-visual analysis of wall painting
Adapting spatial-visual analysis to the study of wall painting
Numerical analysis - distribution across the categories
Tracing the patterns of change
Replacement or retention of earlier styles
Changing priorities in the Fourth Style
Measuring the experience of different classes of visitor
The view of the household
Conclusions
Notes
8. Reflections on the spatial-visual study of Pompeian houses
Spaces and activities
Compromise and conflict
An inherited architectural environment
Extending methodology
Conclusions
Notes
Works cited and abbreviations
Modern Sources
Index
