Much of the sub-elite population of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum resided in apartments. These non-elite residences are frequently found within one to two room commercial shops on the ground floors. Sleeping quarters were located in rear rooms or up steep staircases leading to mezzanine lofts (tabernae cum pergulis). Other apartments were accessed through exterior staircases to separate upper stories (cenacula). For much of the sub-elite population of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum, sleeping in the same place where one worked was commonplace. Physical evidence of the living spaces within these shops can still be found in situ, including the imprints of long-vanished stairs on damaged walls, post-holes that once supported mezzanine lofts (pergulae), or carbonized wooden bed frames. In both cities, there are also large numbers of staircases which once led to independent upper story apartments above houses or public buildings. Despite the prevalence of these apartments, which greatly outnumber houses, they are often overlooked in modern scholarship. Ancient scholarship also disparages these smaller residences and those who lived within them. This dissertation seeks not only to catalogue, map, and analyze these understudied residences using archaeological evidence, but also to tie the physical remains of these structures to ancient literary sources about these dwellings, their residents, and how both were viewed in the Roman world. Through this project, I will also endeavor to create a classification system of the archaeological variations of these residences to prove how greatly the size and features of these apartments could vary. I will also re-evaluate the relationship between non-elite apartments and their neighboring elite houses.聽
2024 IAS Dissertation Research Grant
Jessica聽Mingoia (Rutgers University)
In Pergula Natus: Apartments of Pompeii and Herculaneum