Modeling Menander

At the moment, I’m in the middle of constructing a Sketchup model of the atrium and peristyle in the Casa del Menandro, and it’s proving to be a task far more daunting than I had anticipated. Because many of the 3D models built to represent houses at Pompeii have fallen into the trap of excluding doors and partitions from the doorways (this seems to be a universal oversight), I’m trying to put together a model that will more accurately represent the functionality of these features in domestic space. But, being a bit of a perfectionist, I’ve found myself attempting to recreate the architectural design of the house in ridiculous detail (one should only spend so many hours crafting dentils on the pediment of a lararium); it’s a bit hard to know where to stop. Nonetheless, even in this early phase, the model is starting to look pretty cool. And though I haven’t constructed any of the doors yet, it appears that this could prove to be a useful tool for reassessing the importance of boundaries in the “public” parts of the house. Here are some  screenshots of the model in progress:

Atrium

Peristyle

Fauces and beyond

A long-overdue update

Many exciting things have been happening in the world of the DPHP, so I thought that I would (finally) update the blog. It has been a rather busy spring, to be fair, so I will perhaps draw on the hectic schedule as an excuse for the delay. At any rate, here are the important recent developments:

1. The TRAC 2010 Proceedings volume will be released within the next couple of weeks, so if you are interested in learning about the results of the DPHP's first phase (and would like to read a variety of other  papers, as well), it's available for pre-order from Amazon and directly from Oxbow.

2. The Privata Luxuria workshop was very successful: the range of interesting talks coupled with energetic discussion raised many thought-provoking topics relating to privacy in the Roman house. I certainly came away from it with new perspectives on a variety of issues, many directly related to my own work. Many thanks to Anna Anguissola for organizing the panel and to all of the contributors for their compelling papers. Incidentally, a proceedings volume is scheduled for publication by the end of the year as part of the Münchener Studies zur Alten Welt series through Utz Verlag. More details on this as they become available. 

3. Finally, I spent the last month conducting architectural studies at a variety of sites around the Mediterranean, from Delos to Glanum, and obtained some exciting results. This was the unofficial "third phase" of the DPHP, which will provide comparanda for the data obtained at Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

So, that's a basic summary of project-related goings-on at the moment. Now that primary fieldwork is complete, and the data has been fully processed, it's time for the writing of the dissertation to begin. I may have a couple of papers in the works, as well; again, I'll update the blog (hopefully more regularly) as the details of these become available.

University of Munich workshop

I will be presenting a paper entitled The Form and Function of Boundaries in the Campanian House as part of a seminar focusing on the relationship between public and private space in Roman houses (Privata Luxuria. Towards an Archaeology of Intimacy). This paper will consider the ways in which boundaries influenced the construction of private space in the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum, utilizing data collected from the 2010 DPHP field season. The workshop will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2011 at the University of Munich.

Classical urbanism course

Next semester, I will be teaching a course entitled Classical Urbanism: The Archaeology of the Ancient City through Open Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Classes will be held in the Basil Skinner Room, 15 Buccleuch Place on Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00 from January 18th, 2011. Full course details can be found here.

Fieldwork Complete

The 2010 field season drew to a close at the beginning of August, with the members of the project team returning to their native lands (generally without incident). Given the financial constraints under which we were operating, the project must be judged to have been a complete success. In 17 days, 28 houses and over 550 doorways were surveyed, new friends were made (ciao zio Vincenzo!), and many a strange field song was penned. Again, thanks to the team, who, though sunburned and full of tomatoes/cheese/bread/tuna, were always in good spirits and worked tirelessly to complete the project on time. I could not have hoped for a better group of students.Though fieldwork is now complete, the Doors of Pompeii and Herculaneum Project blog will continue to be updated as data analysis progresses. I intend to give papers summarizing the results of this season's work both in the United States and UK over the coming months; the details of these talks will be posted here as they become available. Stay tuned!