Summary of the Proceedings and Papers Presented at - World ...

The archaeological research in the Casa dei Postumii
and its surroundings was executed as a joint
research project of the German Archaeological Institute,
Rome, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
While this work was completed in 2002, studies about
the long-term protection of the site and its interpretation
(musealizzazione) have not yet been conducted. The conservation
of Cubiculum 5 was sponsored by Studiosus Reisen,
Munich.
Cubiculum 5, on the west side of the atrium, is the only
room in the house that has preserved its decoration fairly
intact. In 1997, it showed all the signs of the repeated quick
and preliminary repairs undertaken since its excavation in
1860. First of all, the conservation program called for the reduction
of humidity inside the walls, the prevention of large
areas of plaster becoming detached from the walls and the
further deterioration of the colored coating of the frescoes.
The three most important aspects of our agenda were to
make sure of the total reversibility of all techniques and materials
applied, second, avoid any work that could cause further
damage to the decoration, and, third, to create a more
homogeneous impression for the modern viewer.
A major result of our work is that the room can now be
appreciated as an aesthetic whole. Consequently, the small
Dionysian pictures are recognizable as part of a particular
spatial concept, reflecting the need for a certain standard of
living and representation in the Casa dei Postumii.
italiano
Casa dei Postumii (VIII 4, 4.49) and its
Insula: Present State and Future Prospects
for Conservation and Presentation
by Jens-Arne Dickmann & Felix Pirson (in collaboration with Letizia Abbondanza,
Corinna Brückener, Janet Haberkorn and Barbara Schick)
The protective roof
The starting point for the development of a protective
roof for the Casa dei Postumii was the need to cover Cubiculum
5 and its freshly-conserved decoration. As the design
of the roof is based on a modular structure, the roof can be
expanded in future. In addition to the need for a modular
structure, the following principles determined the design of
the protective cover:
n complete reversibility,
n no use of ancient walls as support for modern
construction,
n no re-mortaring of ancient masonry,
n no reconstruction of any kind,
n a roof as a ‘light ceiling’ such as used in modern
museums,
n a relatively flat surface, and
n a minimum number of steel pillars.
The general conviction behind theses principles is that an
archaeological monument should be preserved as much as
possible without altering its original archaeological state. A
clear and comprehensible interpretation of the archaeological
monument for the modern visitor should be achieved via
other media, such as explanatory panels and audio- or video-guides,
rather than permanent reconstructions, as these
render contemporary scholarly views absolute and deprive
subsequent generations of the chance to study the monument
with new questions and methods.