I've just caught up with recent messages on Pompeii. It's good to see
concern for the care of the site. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site it
does demand international interest, like Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall.
It's probably worthwhile therefore to give an idea of what is happening
there now.
The current Soprintendente, Prof. Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, has been in
post since 1995. He has been making great advances in the presentation
and long-term conservation of Pompeii. There are many new initiatives
in progress which mean we should be optimistic about the future of the
site. Much of this work is made possible by new policies from the
Italian government which are directing substantially increased funds to
the Soprintendenza. This means that the gate receipts from Pompeii's
millions of visitors are now directly being used for the conservation
and care of the monument. In the end it's money that counts! The
policy was pioneered at Pompeii and it is now proposed to extend it to
other major sites in Italy.
Nevertheless the job is enormous and demands the goodwill of all those
who care for the future of the monument. Just complaining about
the problems achieves little, when there are opportunities for those
who can to contribute directly, for example through the World Monuments
Fund, which is supporting major conservation work at Pompeii.
The Soprintendenza's priorities are firmly set on the care of the
monument, but it's also an exciting time for academic research projects
at Pompeii. Several large international programmes are currently under
way, with important excavations run from universities in Italy, Britain
and the USA, and many other researchers involved from around the world.
These results are creating a new generation of research on the ancient
city by using modern archaeological techniques. You can find information
on our own Anglo-American Project in Pompeii on our web pages
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/pompeii
There are also links there to other useful Pompeian pages.
For reading on Pompeii you could start with these, including in the
most recent volumes reports on the new projects :
Sara Bon & Rick Jones (eds.).
Sequence and Space in Pompeii (Oxbow Monograph 77, 1997)
Robert Etienne.
Pompeii - the Day a City Died. (Thames &
Hudson, London, & Harry Abrams New York, 1992)
Eugenio La Rocca, Mariette & Arnold de Vos.
Pompei. (Guide Archeologiche Mondadori, Milan, 1994).
Ray Laurence.
Roman Pompeii - Space and Society (Routledge 1994)
R. Laurence & A. Wallace-Hadrill (eds.).
Domestic Space in the Roman World, Pompeii and Beyond
(Journal of Roman Archaeology Monograph, 1997)
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.
Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. (Princeton
University Press 1994)
I hope this satisfies some curiosity, and stimulates more.
Rick Jones
----------------------
Dr. Rick Jones
Reader in Roman Archaeology
Bradford Pompeii Research Laboratory
Dept of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Phone: +44 1274 233536
Fax: +44 1274 235190
email: [log in to unmask]
** Anglo-American Project in Pompeii:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/pompeii
** Archaeological Sciences homepage:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/homepage.html
** Newstead Research Project homepage:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/field_proj/newstead/newstead.html
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