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

The Pompeii Forum Project
and the Preservation of the Forum
by John Dobbins
The Pompeii Forum Project is not a conservation project
per se, but its practices are inherently conservation-oriented
in that they strive to preserve data.
Non-invasive, or minimally invasive, procedures respect
the fragility of the site, and the subsurface remains,
and the right of future archaeologists to excavate here. The
paper discusses close observation, the CAD model, the
analysis of relationships among urban components, magnetometry,
small tests (saggi) to answer specific questions, and
the problems of collecting and preserving digital data.
Proposals and suggestions
We would like to recommend:
1. That we at this conference propose a one-hundred-year
moratorium on large-scale digs in the un-excavated areas
of Pompeii.
2. That for the next century archaeologists focus on the
documentation, analysis, excavation, interpretation, and
preservation of the already-excavated remains. These
approaches constitute the current “best practices.”
3. That many insulae be reburied with lapilli to protect
them from vegetal growth, weather, earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions.
In the realm of presentation there are many possibilities:
(1) didactic information in several languages as one finds, for
example, at Fishbourne in England; (2) a corps of trained and
knowledgeable docents stationed in key buildings and at
important locations to explain the history and significance
of the remains; (3) inexpensive, accurate, and useful written
italiano
materials that visitors can purchase as they enter the site;
(4) an informative web site that visitors can consult as they
prepare their trips. And finally, (5) a radical proposal, namely
that a house, or an entire insula, be devoted to historical recreations
of the type that one finds at Colonial Williamsburg
in Virginia in the United States. At the colonial-period capitol
of Virginia, the 18 th century is recreated through architecture,
daily life activities and didactic explanations by staff
members in costume, and craft production using the same
tools and techniques as those of the 18 th century.
The Pompeii Forum Project
Fundamentally, we are not a project that digs. We are a
project that looks, records, analyzes, and draws conclusions.
In the course of our research we have discovered that there
is a rich harvest of data to be gathered in the forum simply
by looking and, especially, careful measuring. Our work
is presented under the following headings: Looking Closely,
Harvesting Data, Drawing Conclusions; Analysis of Relationships
among the Urban Components; Magnetometry; Small
Saggi to Answer Specific Questions; and Preservation of
Digital Data.
Conclusion
In sum, our investigations have been minimally invasive
archaeologically, but the wealth of data collected has led to
conclusions pertaining to three important periods in the life
of the forum. The preservation of the forum buildings that
tell such an important story of the organic growth of the city
should be high on our list of preservation priorities.