The Aschaffenburg model: addenda to JRA Suppl. 98

Extract

V. Kockel has discussed the model as one of the few surviving examples of a form of three-dimensional archaeological recording that was developed by the Padiglione family and other model-makers for the King of the Two Sicilies. Here I provide comparisons with the extant remains of the house, to illustrate how much more we can learn from the model of specific details of the structure and decoration that have been lost since 1840, when the building was still in a remarkably better state of preservation. Aside from the inevitable gradual deterioration of wall-paintings and pavements, which remained almost completely open to the elements after the original excavation was completed in 1809, a direct hit by a bomb on September 23, 1943, left the SE corner a mound of overgrown ruins. In 1970-72, when the Soprintendenza completely roofed the main house block, cleared the bomb rubble, and added low modern walls along the lines of the destroyed rooms to give tourists some idea of the original plan, I directed 37 soundings below the level of A.D. 79. Then between 2005 and 2007, as part of the Progetto Regio VI under F. Coarelli and F. Pesando, M. Stella and I added 17 more soundings, mainly in the area of the peristyle and on the S side of the house. Our final study of the house provided a detailed analysis of its original excavation during the Napoleonic Wars, a full description of the extant rooms and building history, and reports on our excavations.