I.6.3 Pompeii. Officina di Vero gromatico. Workshop of Verus the Blacksmith.

Excavated 1911.

I.6.3 Pompeii. May 2010. Workshop and façade of insula I.6, looking west along Via dell’Abbondanza.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2018. Entrance doorway on south side of Via dell’Abbondanza. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

I.6.3 Pompeii. September 2015. Entrance doorway on south side of Via dell’Abbondanza.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2006. Entrance and façade.

According to Varone and Stefani,

electoral recommendations could be read on the west (right) side of the entrance doorway, when it was first excavated in 1911.

These were numbered CIL IV 7146, 7142, 7144, 7148 and 7150.

See Varone, A. and Stefani, G., 2009. Titulorum Pictorum Pompeianorum, Rome: L’erma di Bretschneider, (p.54).

I.6.3 Pompeii, c.1920. Graffiti to right of entrance.

According to Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (See www.manfredclauss.de), these are

L(ucium) Popidium Secundum / aed(ilem) d(ignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis) [CIL IV 7146]

C(aium) Calventium / Sittium Magnum IIvir(um) i(ure) d(icundo) / o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis) [CIL IV 7148]

Licinium Faustinum / aed(ilem) d(ignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis)     [CIL IV 7142]

Severum / o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis)    [CIL IV 7150]

Pansam aed(ilem) d(ignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis)   [CIL IV 7144]

According to Della Corte, on the pilaster on the right of the doorway, having seen the presence of an older programma, here and there transparent through the letters of another already published (Report of the month of April 1912, number 10) I proceeded to transcribe it entirely, peeling here and there the rear of lime.  The program so recovered says -

M(a)r(ce)ll(u)m / IIvir(um) iter(um) faber / vig<i=V>la et roga d(ignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis) [CIL IV 7147]

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1914, (p.154).

See Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (www.manfredclauss.de).

According to Della Corte, as for No.3, the excavation works here were held at the height of the upper floors.

In the first place, the walls and the room with a window above the workshop numbered 3, were secured, putting into place the lintel. On the right doorpost of this shop, at the height of a man, appeared the programma -

L(ucium) Popidium Secundum / aed(ilem) d(ignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis) / iuvenem probum / dignus est [CIL IV 7146]

The letters of the first line measure in height 0.27m.

The others reduce in height to the last line, whose letters are 0.10m high

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, April 1912, (p.141, numbered 10).

See Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (www.manfredclauss.de).

I.6.3 Pompeii. July 2021. Looking towards east wall and south-east corner.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR

I.6.3 Pompeii. September 2015. Looking towards east wall, and rear room.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

I.6.3 Pompeii. May 2005. Looking south across workshop, with steps to upper floor on the right.

The high zoccolo of Opus signinum with panels separated by black bands and edged by thin red lines formed the simple decoration of this workshop and followed the line of the stairs leading above.

The decoration of the Opus signinum floor had inserted polychrome marble tiles.

In the south wall of the rear room was a window, which took its light from the atrium of the neighbouring house at I.6.2.

I.6.3 Pompeii. July 2021. Looking towards west wall and south-west corner.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2018.

Looking from entrance doorway towards south wall of rear room, and stairs against west wall of workshop, on right.

Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2018. Detail of west wall of rear room. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

I.6.3 Pompeii. September 2015. Looking south-west towards rear room, and stairs against west wall of workshop, in centre.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2023. Looking north past the reconstruction (copy of the plaster-cast) of a slave’s cot against west wall.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2023. Reconstruction (copy of the plaster-cast) of a slave’s cot against west wall. Photo courtesy of Miriam Colomer.

This reconstruction of a cot, a bed of the simplest known typology, was found in the suburban villa of Civita Giuliana, in the "slave room".

The simple bed, a sort of camp bed, consisting of a wooden frame with leather straps at the corners to fasten the various parts.

To this was tied a net of ropes on which the blanket rested.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2023.

Description card, for cot/bed on display in I.6.3 but from the suburban villa of Civita Giuliana.

The cot will be displayed in an exhibition in the Palaestra from December 2023 to December 2024, entitled “The other Pompeii: Common lives in the shadow of Vesuvius.”

Photo courtesy of Miriam Colomer.

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2023. Detail of a slave’s cot against west wall.

According to PAP this represents the living conditions of 80% of the people of Pompeii.

Photograph © Parco Archeologico di Pompei.

See PAP press release: Aspettando la mostra l'altra Pompei nel sito un letto che racconta la vita degli ultimi

I.6.3 Pompeii. September 2015. Looking south along west wall towards stairs.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

I.6.3 Pompeii. July 2021.

West wall at entrance doorway, remaining painted stucco in north-west corner.

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2018.

Groma, on display in Boscoreale Antiquarium. Photo by Giuseppe Ciaramella.

According to the description card –

“Il principale strumento di rilevamento era la groma, il cui nome deriva dal termine greco gnomen tramite l’etrusco cruma.

A Pompei ne fu rinvenuta una nell’officina dell’agrimensore Verus.

Tale strumento si basava sul principio delle mire ortogonali e consentiva di tracciare linee e angoli retti.”

(The main detection tool was the groma, whose name derives from the Greek term gnomen through to the Etruscan cruma.

In Pompei one was found in the workshop of the land surveyor Verus. 

This tool was based on the principle of orthogonal sights and used to draw lines and right angles.)

I.6.3 Pompeii. February 2021.

Bronze lamp with statuette of a satyr with a phallus from which small bells hang, on display in Antiquarium at VIII.1.4.

Photo courtesy of Fabien Bièvre-Perrin (CC BY-NC-SA).

I.6.3 Pompeii. February 2021.

Detail of bronze lamp with statuette of a satyr with a phallus from which small bells hang.

Photo courtesy of Fabien Bièvre-Perrin (CC BY-NC-SA).

I.6.3 Pompeii. December 2018.

Silver amulet in the form of a phallus. PAP inventory number 1431C. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

1.6.3 Pompeii. May 2010. Upper floor.