La Freccia Marzo 2020

DISCOVERING POMPEII
JOURNEY TO THE
WORLD’S LARGEST
OPEN-AIR MUSEUM.
FRESCOES, PAINTINGS,
MOSAICS, DOMUS,
TAVERNS AND TOMBS
AMONGST RECENT
AND SENSATIONAL
DISCOVERIES
Pompeii is unique in the world.
This is not only because of
the extraordinary state of
conservation of its ruins but due to
it being a palimpsest of numerous
urban existences cut short in 79 AD
before suddenly recommencing in the
century of the Enlightenment, with the
start of official excavations in 1748. From
then to today, 270 years of new life have
passed, a historical journey comprised
of people engaged in excavations,
restorations, reflections on how to
manage an incredible heritage, and
appreciative visitors coming in even
greater numbers each year (today
averaging around four million).
Between those two emblematic
moments of destruction and
rediscovery – 79 and 1748 – came
another extensive, more mysterious,
underground existence – whilst
above the blanket of ash and lapilli
was a fertile cultivated countryside,
beneath lay the walls of rooms and
buried streets repeatedly revisited
to rummage through the ruins. This
centuries-long treasure hunt pushed
ordinary people who lived, cultivated
and worked above the vanished city
to create pits, tunnels and burrows to
search for precious objects. People
have long been digging in Pompeii,
both lawfully and illicitly.
Today, those who stroll along the
dusty streets of the ancient city, who
enter its houses to admire paintings
and mosaics, can barely perceive this
temporal stratification, being led to
believe that what can be seen – the
spaces, architecture, decorations –
Due gladiatori alla fine della lotta, in una scena di un affresco scoperto di recente nella Regio V
Two gladiators at the end of the fight, in a the scene of the last fresco found in the Regio V
is a set image of a reality stopped
in its tracks once and for all by the
eruption of Vesuvius and extracted
from the incessant flow of time. The
city continues to offer thrills and
reflections, to inspire fashions and
forms of art, whilst the official workers
recall the incessant commitment (in
removing the lapilli, the restorations,
the reconstructions) and also the
damage that man has inflicted
over time (carelessness, incorrect
operations, clandestine excavations –
sometimes more ruthless than nature).
What is the excavated city of today,
our contemporary Pompeii? We can
say that today’s Pompeii is the one
experiencing a new life, an example of
redemption following the dark years
of scandals and collapses (including
the most striking one of the Schola
Armaturarum in 2010). At that time, the
prolonged lack of systematic checks
and constant maintenance led to
situations of degradation so advanced
that they could not be safeguarded by
standard interventions alone. Pompeii
needed a Grande Progetto – a Great
Project – able to address all the critical
issues in a pervasive and extensive way,
finally in an urban scale. Commenced
in 2012 but only coming into full force
between 2014 and 2019, thanks to a
new law (the Valore Cultura decree)
and the commitment of two ministers,
Massimo Bray and Dario Franceschini,
the Grande Progetto Pompei has
led to a change in governance (with
the Carabinieri General Giovanni
Nistri as General Director of the GPP,
today replaced by General Mauro
Cipolletta, and the author as Special
Superintendent and now Director
General of the Archaeological Park),
putting in place qualified forces and
skills, enlivened by a common goal to
do a good job and do it quickly.
In this way, fundamental operations
and activities were undertaken to
conserve and preserve Pompeii,
solving many of the problems never
before addressed, securing the entire
archaeological area, restoring and
reopening whole zones, buildings
and roads denied to the public for too
long. In opening access to 32 hectares
out of the 44 excavated plus new
pathways, including one for people
with disabilities, special attention
was paid to fruition, to the public
archaeology, defining communication
and dissemination systems that now
transmit a completely new image of
Pompeii.
With the Grande Progetto, we finally
returned to digging, which had not
been done since the 1960s. The works
to secure the excavation sources, a
project that involved the re-shaping
and stabilisation of the escarpments
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