26. Pompeii (formerly Boscoreale).
Villa rustica nel fondo di Raffaele
Brancaccio.
Excavated 1904 by Carlo
Rossi-Filangieri.
In
contrada Civita-Giuliana, Pompei, at the local
Pompei-Boscoreale road, today via Civita.
According to CTP, the area for this villa should be to the north-east of
Villa 25, and east of Villa 58.
See Van der Poel, H. B., 1981. Corpus Topographicum Pompeianum, Part V. Austin: University of Texas. (plan opposite
p.22).
Secondo il sito web PAdiP –
Villa del fondo Brancaccio, Pompei. Modesta fattoria dove si rinvenne un
frantoio per olive (trapetum). Ricoperta dopo lo scavo.
According to PAdiP web site –
(Villa del fondo Brancaccio, Pompeii. Modest farm where a mill for olives (trapetum) was found. Re-buried after
the excavation.)
Bibliography
Notizie degli Scavi di
Antichità, 1921, pp. 423ff.
Carrington, R.,
1931. Studies in the Campanian Villae
Rusticae: Journal of Roman Studies, 21, p. 122 (n. 26)
and note 2, fìg. 16.
Casale A., Bianco
A., Primo contributo alla topografia del suburbio pompeiano: Supplemento al
n. 15 di ANTIQUA ottobre-dicembre 1979, 65 (Fig. 17) p. 41.
Castaldi, F., 1950. La
trasformazione della villa rustica in rapporto alle condizioni della
agricoltura: Annali Istituto Sup. S. Chiara di Napoli, 2, fig.
3.
Day, J., 1932. Agriculture in the life of Pompeii: Yale
Classical Studies, 3, tav. C, n. 26.
Rostovzev, M., 1973. Storia economica e sociale dell’Impero Romano, Firenze, 5° ediz.,
p. 34, note 26, n. 26.
Plan
Boscoreale, Villa rustica nel fondo di Raffaele Brancaccio. Plan.
See Casale A.,
Bianco A., Primo contributo alla topografia del suburbio pompeiano:
Supplemento al n. 15 di ANTIQUA ottobre-dicembre 1979, 65 (Fig. 17) p. 41.
Notizie degli Scavi, 1921,
p.416, (note 1)
Note: Excavations undertaken by private citizens in the Pompeian territory.
(Ten years ago, by
commission expressly from sig. Sopraintendente prof. Vittorio Spinazzola, I had
to prepare an extensive report, accompanied by numerous photographs, plans and
drawings on eleven private excavations of which no news had been given yet. But
now that every investigation to find it has been in vain, so it must be
considered as definitively lost, and now the Soprintendenza considers that gap
must be filled, not without pain, I have redone the work already completed and
with this and other subsequent reports, I will give news of the precious
topographical antiquarian material, unearthed in the excavations).
(signed Matteo Della Corte).
Notizie degli Scavi, 1921, page
423
II.
Another Villa
rustica, excavated by sig. cav. Carlo Rossi-Filangieri in the fondo of Raffaele
Brancaccio, in the same contrada Civita-Giuliana (Boscoreale) in the months of
January to March 1904.
Almost at the same
distance from the walls of Pompeii, but to the west of via vicinale
Pompei-Boscoreale, about 100 m west of the present farmhouse building of Raffaele
Brancaccio, was brought back to light a rustic and unadorned farm (fig. 5),
which, by the absolute absence of any hint of luxury -the floors were uniformly
of beaten earth, and the walls were entirely bare - clearly showed that it would
have been inhabited by only workers servicing the surrounding farms, rich in
vineyards and olive groves. It was built in opus incertum of the obvious
Pompeian materials, and strengthened in several places, after the earthquake of
the year 63, with opus latericium. (brickwork)
Boscoreale, Villa
rustica nel fondo di Raffaele Brancaccio. Plan of villa.
See Notizie
degli Scavi di Antichità, 1921, p. 424, fig. 5.
At "A",
facing fully south, was the main entrance, on the left side three large dolia were
placed in the earth: in "a" was an oven of 1.50m in diameter.
The next courtyard,
"B" (in which were gathered fragments of many terra-cotta amphorae;
another dolium which was noted on the plan; an oil-jar 0.14 m high; a rustic
dish of 0.18 m in diam, and twenty-two hinges of bone) formed the entrance that
was common to all the surrounding rooms, and contained the following noteworthy
things:
in "b",
the lararium, consisting of a semicircular niche 0.53 m high, at the foot of
which were found the skeletons of two men and two dogs;
in "c", a
volcanic stone mill (mola manuaria), walled
above a suitable parapet;
in "d",
just in front of the entrance, a latrine, where a third dog had taken refuge, as
per the skeleton found there.
According to Boyce:
In the narrow court reached directly from the main entrance to the villa, is the lararium in the form of a semi-circular niche (h. 0.53).
Not. Scavi, 1921, 423.
See Boyce G. K., 1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii. Rome: MAAR 14, 495, p. 99.
The rooms on the east
side, "rooms 1-4", 2m high on the east and 3.50m high on the west, must
be regarded as a series of closets, because they were simply covered with a
roof, sloping outwards. By the considerable furnishings/household goods found
here room 3 was the exception, where perhaps the workers gathered to consume
their meals. Here are the objects found therein.
— Bronze: an ovoidal
dish 0.16m high; a cylindrical small box, 0.09m high.
— Iron: two hoes and
a gardening knife; three keys, and the remains of the foot of a piece of
furniture with castors moulded in bone.
— Glass: a bottle with
spherical belly and long neck, 0.19m high.
— Terracotta: three
lamps, one with the relief of a sphinx on the disk; five curvaceous jugs, 0.16 -
0.18m high; a cup 0.16m high, with ring handle; a small cup, or drinking cup,
0.07m high; an ovoidal dish, 0.09m high; a plate of 0.21m diameter; three wine
amphorae; an amphora on level foot; a vase; 0.90m high, containing remains of
millet seeds; a plate, 0.14 m in diameter.
Two entrances opened
on the west side of the courtyard, and of these the one went only to a large storeroom
"room 10", from which came two wine amphorae: the other entrance to
the central rooms. In "room 5"
were the first two lengths of the masonry stairs that gave access to the upper
loggia; opposite was “room 6", solely plastered, though rustically, which had
not given place to any sorts of finds, perhaps because it had already been explored
in recent times: and this applied equally to the adjoining rooms, all searched unnecessarily.
In the trapetum "room
7", in addition to the solid, volcanic lava olive-press, formed of a basin
with a hemispherical cavity, around the central column were placed the two
hemispheres of the same stone joined by the only horizontal bar, only one
object was found here, which was a round lead boiler, 0.30m high, furnished
with three iron ring handles, around the brim.
Found in "room 9",
whose use was unknown use, were:
— Bronze: a
cylindrical situla, 0.14 high; a casserole of 0.13m in diameter.
— Terracotta: a
large spherical pot, 0.40 m high; three jugs, 0.15 - 0.17m high and two lamps; a
wide and low pan, 0.37m in diameter; two wine amphorae, on the neck of one was
the inscription CIL IV 6967: V(inum) r(ubrum) \ T.M.F.
Two certain notions
are these: that the “room 12” was a hay-loft, being gathered, in large masses,
carbonised straw, and that the big shed "13", whose large roof sloped
towards the east and was supported in its centre by a massive brick pillar, was
a chestnut poles store, these were also found in a carbonised state between the
pillar and the northern wall, just as they had been lying, straight, but with
the upper tips slightly inclined towards the north.
Finally, in this
shed were gathered the remains of two lanterns with bronze frame, and several
fragments of the sheets of transparent silicate (“talce”)
that covered it; a lead counterweight of trapezoidal shape, drilled
longitudinally at the summit; a rustic earthenware dish, 0.22m in diameter; a
simple circular-bodied lamp, and six fragments of dishes, with their maker’s
marks:
Boscoreale, Villa
rustica nel fondo di Raffaele Brancaccio. Makers’ marks.
See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1921, p. 425.
A look at the plan
makes clear that the building, originally of a smaller square plan, was later
expanded with the construction of the hay-loft "12" with its corridor
access to the north, of woodshed "13", and of the rooms "11 and
8 “, of which the last was built between the entrances "A and C",
separately adding to the courtyard and to the woodshed.