Nuove ricerche per una rilettura delle mura di Pompei

Since the news of the rediscovery of Pompeii’s walls first broke out in the second half of the 18th century up until today, more than two thirds of the perimeter of the walls have been brought to light. It is a circuit of 3.2 kilometres that constitutes an unparalleled source for the definition of Pompeii’s urban history. It is, in fact, amazingly rich with remains of different constructional techniques that are very revealing of the different stages that had characterized such an urban development. The historical account of the succession of the constructional stages of Pompeii’s walls still predominant among writers today is that which Amedeo Maiuri sketched out during the investigations he conducted from the 1930s to the 1950s. New elements have now emerged thanks to current research funded by the University of Rome Tor Vergata which started in 2009. A new reading of the remains, in opus quadratum, of the walls – which are traditionally attributed to two distinct constructional stages: Paleo-Samnite and Meso-Samnite – has in fact paved the way to a new account which – even if more information is of course still expected to emerge from the research – is arguably to be preferred to the traditional one. An account that understands the wall’s fortifications as not to be ascribed to the stages mentioned above but, rather, to a single constructional stage.