overed the Casa del Menandro and Villa dei Mister, and he undertook stratigraphical research under the AD 79 level, in his search for the origins of Pompeii.
Alfonso De Franciscis became director of excavations in 1964 – his period in charge was characterised by an emphasis on the restoration of buildings that had already been uncovered. Only the magnificent Casa di Polibio was uncovered in this period.
Following him, Fausto Zevi and Giuseppina Cerulli Irelli had to work hard to resolve the problems caused in Pompeii by the earthquake of 1980. Then in 1984 Baldassare Conticello started an extensive and systematic restoration of buildings in Regio I and II, where excavation work had already been completed.
The excavation of the Complesso dei Casti Amanti was done ex novo (from scratch). The present director, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo (who started his stint in Pompeii in 1994) has had to confront many management and financial problems in order to plan the finishing of excavations and the complete restoration of the buildings. In the most recent years, excavations have been carried out outside the Porta Stabia, and also in Murecine, near the river Sarno, where the Hospitium dei Sulpici has been uncovered.
Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii, but it is even more important to restore what has already been excavated. Today 44 of the 66 hectares of urban area are visible, and it is unanimously considered that the other 22 hectares must be left under the volcanic debris, in order to preserve this important part of our past for future generations.
The nine books of Antichità d’Ercolano Esposte by the Accademia Ercolanese (from 1757 onwards), as well as the works of Winckelmann, Francois Mazois and William Gell, informed the whole of Europe about what was being revealed as the ancient Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii were slowly being uncovered.
The discoveries aroused great interest, and emotion, among Enlightenment circles – and offered many new subjects for cultural debate. Slowly a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists. Painters, sculptors, jewellers, upholsterers, cabinet-makers, joiners, decorators – all made explicit reference to the findings in the towns that Vesuvius buried, and there was a constant demand for books illustrated with accurate pictures.
Many European countries, thanks to the new importance given to the ancient world, opened academies in Naples and Rome to offer hospitality to those who wanted to study the newly excavated towns. I
