1 Herculaneum DOMENICO CAMARDO AND SARAH COURT Herculaneum is an archaeological site on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, best known as the Roman town that was destroyed – along with POMPEII – by the eruption of VESUVIUS in 79 CE. It could be argued that the discipline of archaeology began at Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, when excavation of the Roman town was accompanied by scientific approaches and technical documentation. Whether or not this is true, there is no doubt that the rediscovery of Herculaneum – and its material culture – had an enormous impact on European culture (Pace 2000). Once the major focus of excavation campaigns during the early twentieth century, Herculaneum has since become overshadowed in the public imagination by Pompeii, but its particular preservation – from organic materials to upper floors – means that it makes a significant contribution to understanding daily life in the Roman world. Today only about a third of the town has been fully excavated, and this area largely contains private residences. A neighboring archaeological area contains a corner of the Villa of the Papyri, while to the north lies the theater, still accessible only by eighteenthcentury tunnels. HERCULANEUM’S ORIGINS The legend of Herculaneum’s foundation was described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus Figure 1 The ancient town of Herculaneum was terraced down to the sea; note Vesuvius in the background and the overhanging buildings of modern Ercolano. Image by Sarah Court/Herculaneum Conservation Project. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 3150–3155. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah16068 2 (1.35): Hercules founded the town on his return from Iberia while herding the Cattle of Geryon along the Campanian coast; this legend reflects a Greek influence in the town’s origins (see HERAKLES/HERCULES). Instead Strabo (5.4.8) links Herculaneum to Pompeii, stating that both settlements were first Oscan, then Etruscan and Pelasgian, and later Samnite. By the end of the fourth century BCE Herculaneum must have been part of the socalled Nucerian league, together with Pompeii, Stabiae, and Surrentum, communities that Polybius includes in the Nucerian ethnos (3.91.4). Along with these other settlements, Herculaneum came under the Roman sphere of influence in 308 BCE, the year in which Nuceria was conquered in the Second Samnite War. However, the town kept its OSCAN culture and language alive for a long time, as seen in an OSCAN inscription on a marble altar dedicated to Venus Erycina by a magistrate in the Samnite period (Vetter 1953: 90 n. 107). After rebelling against Rome during the Social War, Herculaneum was re-conquered in 89 BCE by Titus Didius, one of Sulla’s legates, as recounted by Velleius Paterculus (2.16). After the Roman conquest, Herculaneum had the status of municipium and was run by two annual magistrates known as duumviri. Inscriptions show that the town also had an aedile, the magistrate who oversaw public maintenance and cleaning, and a quaestor who dealt with the town finances. URBAN LAYOUT There is no secure archaeological evidence to indicate when Herculaneum was founded. The oldest part of the town presumably developed along the coastal road that ran from Neapolis to Pompeii, which now lies 20 m under the modern town of Ercolano. Excavations within the archaeological site have found only a small amount of evidence dating to the fourth century BCE, but it is not enough to allow the town itself to be dated to that period. Instead, enough remains of structures and occupation levels have been found to be able to date the early settlement to the turn of the third/second century. Herculaneum sits on a natural terrace in a strategic position overlooking the sea. This terrace was formed of accumulated tuff layers from the Ottaviano/Mercato eruption of Vesuvius (6000 BCE) and the ash layer from the Avellino eruption (1750 BCE). This had then been altered by human activity, as the Ottaviano tuff was good quality for construction, and quarrying lowered the area by the sea by more than 10 m. The slope to the sea was terraced, and the town was laid out with three east–west decumani that followed the natural curve of the land, and at least five north–south cardines. Sisenna (fragment 53) describes Herculaneum as an oppidum with modest town walls and bounded by two seasonal river valleys running down from Vesuvius; it also had a harbor that was secure in all seasons (fragment 54). The definition of an oppidum gives the idea that the town was fortified; however, the two flanking river valleys and the steep drop down to the sea made strong defensive walls necessary only on the northeast. Large opus quadratum blocks have been found reused in various buildings across the site, suggesting that an older town wall had been built using that technique. Once the pax Romana arrived in Campania, there was no longer a need for defenses and this is reflected in the construction of private homes up against and outside the walls. The archaeological site includes about half of the ancient town up to the decumanus maximus. Information from the eighteenthcentury tunnel excavations shows that there was an upper decumanus paved in basalt that can be identified as the Neapolis–Pompeii road that passed through Herculaneum. The Roman town as it existed at the time of the eruption was the product of significant reorganization and reconstruction in the early imperial period, when most of the domus were rebuilt and the richer seafront houses in 3 particular expanded to encompass several other properties. This phenomenon also affected the few public buildings that have been excavated so far – although the forum, among other areas, is still buried. Private property came in a wide range of typologies (see HOUSES, HOUSING, HOUSEHOLD FORMATION, GREECE AND ROME). Large houses overlooking the sea combined the traditional spaces of the Roman domus with a series of panoramic residential rooms with terraces, verandas, and belvederes (Pesando and Guidobaldi 2006). Then there are houses of the town’s “middle class,” often laid out as standard atrium houses, but several examples went beyond this, providing new solutions for the atrium and the layout of spaces. There are also large multistory buildings divided into more modest apartments. As for known public buildings, there are three bath complexes; a building believed to have been used by the AUGUSTALES; the partially excavated Basilica Noniana; the cult building known as the Augusteum, which was explored by tunnel although it remains unexcavated; the large palaestra; and the theater, though again this has not been excavated and can be visited only by tunnel. Instead, the so-called Sacred Area on the sea front has been completely excavated and seems to have been a sanctuary dedicated to Venus. A stuccoed podium found during eighteenthcentury excavations near the theater was identified as another temple; it stands on the decumanus maximus and is still partially visible in a tunnel. Written sources provide further information: inscriptions mention a market (macellum), public weights and measures (pondera), a semicircular bench (schola), and a monumental vestibule (chalcidium). Another inscription mentions a temple to Magna Mater, while sculptural fragments and other archaeological finds suggest the existence of a temple dedicated to Isis. As in all Roman cities, there must have been a temple dedicated to the Capitoline triad, and Herculaneum must have had a temple dedicated to Hercules, but as a large part of the town – including the forum – has not been excavated, there is still much to learn. THE 79 CE ERUPTION The town was profoundly damaged by the 62 CE earthquake, which destroyed many private homes and even damaged the public buildings. The emperor Vespasian financed the restoration of the Augusteum and the Temple of Magna Mater, while a local figure, Vibidia Saturnina, and her son A. Furius Saturninus paid for the reconstruction of Temple B in the Sacred Area. While the town sought to recover from that first earthquake, it was damaged again by further seismic shocks that hit between 62 and 79, which were indications of the imminent eruption. This final tragedy has traditionally been dated to 24 August, although some scholars have begun to question this date and suggest it was more likely to have occurred between September and October 79 (Stefani 2006). Interdisciplinary studies in recent years have allowed a detailed reconstruction of the final period of Herculaneum’s life (Cinque and Irollo 2008). Seismic shocks and bradyseism seem to have led to great instability, and the latter caused a lowering of the ground level and consequently the sea encroached on the town. This phenomenon caused damage to the buildings along the shoreline, including marine erosion, leading the owners to abandon ground floors and to construct protective works against the incoming sea. It is in this context that the sudden explosion of VESUVIUS took place: as the volcano was covered in vineyards and woods, the local inhabitants had believed it to be extinct. After the initial explosion, a 15 km high column of pyroclastic material was blown towards Pompeii and Stabiae, where ashes and lapilli rained down until the settlements were covered by several meters of volcanic material (see POMPEII, DESTRUCTION OF). 4 Herculaneum seemed spared from the volcano’s violence in this phase, and only a very thin layer of ashes and lapilli fell on the town. It was only on the second day of the eruption, when the volcanic column collapsed, that the town was hit by a burning cloud of gas at more than 400 C that traveled at more than 80 km an hour (De Carolis and Patricelli 2003). When this reached Herculaneum it instantly destroyed all forms of life. The few inhabitants who were still in the town were killed by thermal shock, as were the more than 300 people whose skeletons were found in the arches along the shoreline and on the beach, where they were perhaps waiting for help from the sea. In the following hours a series of pyroclastic surges and flows buried the town under 15–25 m of volcanic material. This gradually solidified, enclosing the structures and taking on a consistency that in some cases is as hard as tuff rock. THE REDISCOVERY OF THE TOWN AND EARLY EXCAVATIONS The first news of ancient Herculaneum’s exact location under the modern settlement of Resina dates to the sixteenth century, when Fabio Giordano reported on marbles and the remains of ancient structures discovered during the digging of a well and in the foundations of various buildings. In the seventeenth century too there were occasional finds, and the identification of ancient Herculaneum was confirmed by Giulio Cesare Capaccio and Carlo Celano. However, it was not until 1710 that the Roman town was brought back to wider public attention when the French prince d’Elboeuf built his villa at nearby Granatello di Portici and was offered ancient marbles found by a farmer during the digging of a well. The prince dug for nine months and brought up a large quantity of marble and various statues, as the well had come down onto Herculaneum’s theater. Systematic investigations started only in 1738 under King Charles of Bourbon. Tunnels were employed for explorations using mining techniques to overcome the thick compact layer of solidified volcanic material. There were enormous difficulties relating to the narrowness of the tunnels, the risk of cave-ins, the lack of oxygen, and the presence of pockets of poisonous gases. The finds were taken to the royal palace at Portici, where a proper museum was built in 1751, although access was restricted to the king and the few visitors that he permitted to admire his collections. The museum grew on a daily basis with finds from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae, and its fame spread rapidly across Europe (Cantilena and Porzio 2008). In 1750 the Villa of the Papyri was discovered by chance, along with its rich sculptural decoration (Guidobaldi 2008) and over a thousand carbonized papyri (Sider 2002), increasing interest in the excavations at Herculaneum. However, the difficulty of the works led to their gradually slowing down and then ending definitively in 1780 in favor of Pompeii, where excavation was easier and cheaper (Parslow 1995). Work resumed in 1828, and this time open-air excavation was attempted for the first time. This resulted in the excavation of the House of Argus, which generated interest for its upper-floor balcony overlooking the street (which later had to be demolished as it started collapsing). However, few finds were discovered, and the work remained challenging and came to an end in 1855. Excavations started again only after the unification of Italy, when in 1869 another small piece of land was bought and the works, overseen by the superintendent Giuseppe Fiorelli, were inaugurated by King Victor Emmanuel II. This small work site was exhausted by 1875 and excavation stopped. THE MAIURI PERIOD This state of affairs continued until 1924, when Amedeo Maiuri became superintendent of the excavations and antiquities of the Campania region. Within a few years Maiuri had 5 developed a plan for excavating and restoring the ancient town, and new works officially began on 16 May 1927. Maiuri put together a team made up almost entirely of internal superintendency staff who carried out all phases of work from excavation to restoration to the in situ display of the most important finds. Herculaneum gradually became a sort of open-air museum as the finds were contextualized, with a particular emphasis on objects that illustrated daily life (Camardo 2006). This excavation campaign was the most significant at Herculaneum and involved removing more than 250,000 m3 of solidified volcanic material. Most of the work took place between 1927 and 1942, when World War II almost brought the excavations to a halt. Since Maiuri’s retirement in 1961 his sitewide museum has gradually been dismantled as objects are taken to storerooms and display cases removed. This is because of damage caused by temperature variations and atmospheric agents, the continual need to maintain the display cases, and the increased risk of theft linked to the development of mass tourism. LATE TWENTIETH- AND EARLY TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY WORK AT THE SITE In the 1980s work focused on the ancient shoreline to the south of the town, with the excavation of the beach and a well-preserved boat. In the arches facing on to the beach more than 300 skeletons were found. In 1986 a project was started to identify the exact location and layout of the Villa of the Papyri; the atrium area was then excavated between 1993 and 1997. In the meantime, the regular program of maintenance that Maiuri had set up for the main archaeological site broke down, leading to increasing decay of the ancient structures, with the continual danger of collapse. Consequently about a third of the Roman houses and streets were closed to the public. In 2001 the Herculaneum Conservation Project was set up by the Packard Humanities Institute in partnership with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei and the British School at Rome. The project has become Italy’s largest public–private partnership for heritage. Since 2004 the project has worked in partnership with the superintendency across the site to reduce decay and return Herculaneum to a manageable state (Thompson 2007). The project team is working to establish a program for the site’s long-term continual care, but also to promote greater knowledge of and discussion about Herculaneum among the international and local communities, in order to ensure that there is shared commitment to its future protection. SEE ALSO: Cities, Roman Empire (west); Domus; Italy, southern; Municipia, Roman Republic; Neapolis (Naples); Papyrus; Pompeii; Volcanoes. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Camardo, D. (2006) “Gli scavi ed i restauri di Amedeo Maiuri: Ercolano e l’esperimento di una città museo.” Ocnus 14: 69–81. Cantilena, R. and Porzio, A., eds. (2008) Herculanense Museum: laboratorio sull’antico nella Reggia di Portici. Naples. Cinque, A. and Irollo, G. (2008) “La paleogeografia dell’antica Herculaneum e le fluttuazioni, di origine bradisismica, della sua linea di costa.” In P. G. Guzzo and M. P. Guidobaldi, eds., Nuove ricerche archeologiche nell’area Vesuviana (scavi 2003–2006): 425–38. Rome. De Carolis, E. and Patricelli, G. (2003) Vesuvius AD 79: the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Los Angeles. Guidobaldi, M. P., ed. (2008) Ercolano: tre secoli di scoperte. Naples. Pace, S. (2000) Herculaneum and European culture between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Naples. Pagano, M., ed. (2000) Gli antichi ercolanesi: antropologia, società, economia. Naples. 6 Parslow, C. C. (1995) Rediscovering antiquity: Karl Weber and the excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae. Cambridge. Pesando, F. and Guidobaldi, M. P. (2006) Gli ozi di Ercole: residenze di lusso a Pompei ed Ercolano. Rome. Sider, D. (2002) The library of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. Los Angeles. Stefani, G. (2006) “La vera data dell’eruzione.” Archeo 260: 10–14. Thompson, J. (2007) “Conservation and management challenges in a public/private partnership for a large archaeological site (Herculaneum, Italy).” Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 8, 4: 191–204. Vetter, E. (1953) Handbuch der italischen Dialekte, vol. 1: Texte mit Erklärung, Glossen, Wörterverzeichnis. Heidelberg.