Ivo van der Graaff, Assistant Professor of Art & Art History, COLA travels to Italy

As the director of excavations for the Oplontis Project, Professor van der Graaff investigated two structures that were buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE

The city walls of Pompeii : perceptions and expressions of a monumental boundary

Fortifications often represent the largest and most extensive remains present on archaeological sites. Their massive scale is the primary reason for their survival and reflects the considerable resources that communities invested in their construction. Yet, until recently, they have largely remained underrepresented as monuments in studies on the ancient city. Beyond their defensive function city walls constituted an essential psychological boundary protecting communities from unpredictable elements including war, brigandage, and more elusive natural forces. These factors have led scholars to identify fortifications as playing a distinct role in the definition of a civic identity. Nevertheless, beyond the recognition of some general trends, a definitive diachronic study of their performance within a single urban matrix is still lacking. This dissertation examines the city walls of Pompeii as an active monument rather than a static defensive enclosure. The city preserves one of the most intact set of defenses surviving since antiquity which, in various shapes and forms, served as one its defining elements for over 600 years. Pompeii’s fortifications, through construction techniques, materials, and embellishments, engaged in an explicit architectural dialogue with the city, its urban development, and material culture. Their basic framework changed in response to military developments, but their appearance is also the result of specific political and ideological choices. As a result, the city walls carried aesthetic and ideological associations reflecting the social and political organization of the community. This study is the first of its kind. It provides a diachronic examination of the Pompeian fortifications by assessing their role in the social and architectural definition of the city. The walls were subject to appropriation and change in unison with the ambitions of the citizens of Pompeii. From their original construction through subsequent modifications, the fortifications expressed multivalent political, religious, and social meanings, particular to specific time periods in Pompeii. This analysis reveals a monument in continuous flux that changed its ideological meaning and relationship to civic identity, in response to the major historical and social developments affecting the city.Art Histor

The Oplontis Project 2012-13: A Report of Excavations at Oplontis B

The Oplontis Project has been studying Oplontis B since the summer of 2012. As with its work in Villa A, the study of Villa B includes excavation below the 79 CE levels. During the 2012 and 2013 campaigns, the project excavated a total of 8 trenches. These focused on the central courtyard, a sewer system in the SW corner of the central courtyard (OPB3 and 8), rooms to the west of the courtyard (OPB4), a street and town houses to north of the courtyard building (OPB5 and 7), and the portico on the south side of that building (OPB6). The 2012 and 2013 campaigns revealed some significant information hidden below the 79 CE levels at Oplontis B. Excavation documented at least three distinct pavement levels in the courtyard area, and the addition of a drainage system. At the north side of the site, these campaigns also identified a reconfiguration of the ground-floor rooms and a repaving of the street. Although the pending study of the material culture associated with Oplontis B should provide a more precise chronological narrative, these initial results suggest that the complex was part of a wider settlement built before the construction of neighboring Villa A

Preliminary Notes on Two Seasons of Research at Oplontis B (2014-2015)

The complex known as Oplontis B lies in the shadow of Vesuvius, about 3 kilometers west of Pompeii and 300 meters from the well-known Villa A. Since its first excavation and reconstruction in the 1970s and 1980s, Oplontis B has languished in abandonment ―virtually unstudied. The Oplontis Project, led by John Clarke and Michael Thomas, began investigating the site in 2012 after completing its work on Villa A. The documentation of the complex is a primary task. In the past few years members of the Project team have cataloged the previously excavated materials, recording over 1200 wine amphorae as well as a variety of other artifacts. At the same time, Marcus Abbott has laser-scanned the building to produce a detailed plan of the site. The excavations have similar aims: to record the 79 CE level of the complex and to investigate its development. This paper discusses the preliminary results of the last two seasons of excavations and cataloging efforts which build on our previous work conducted in 2012 and 2013