The Macellum
Field observations, 1997
Last updated Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 1:53 PM Copyright © 1996, 1997 Kirk Martini
Macellum
Overview
The Macellum is an important building in assessing damage and reconstruction patterns at Pompeii because it includes five areas of clear out-of-plane damage and repair. For the purposes of this discussion, the areas will be called areas 1 through 5, according to the plan and photographs below.
| A plan of the Macellum, identifying damage areas |
Area 1 | 
Area 2 | 
Area 3 | 
Area 4 | 
Area 5 |
| Photographs of the five out-of-plane damage areas of the Macellum. |
Equally important to the areas of repair are the apparently similar conditions which do not show repair. For instance, other than area 4, the portion of the south wall that is buttressed by shop walls shows little signs of repair, yet the wall appears to be similar to the north wall, also buttressed by shop walls. A hypothesis which assumes repair of earthquake or volcanic damage in one location, should also explain cases where such repair does not occur in similar locations.
The following discussion presents observations on each of the areas, followed by a discussion of explanations and hypotheses for the overall pattern of damage and repair.
| Next: Repair area 1 of the Macellum |
Last updated Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 1:53 PM
Copyright © 1996, 1997 Kirk Martini
Please send comments or questions to Martini@virginia.edu