Pompeii - New Excavations

(Local Name: Nuovi Scavi) 100m/110yd along the Via dell'Abbondanza to the right is the beginning of the New Excavations (Nuovi Scavi), in which wall paintings and furniture have been left in place and in many cases the upper story with its balconies and loggias has been preserved by the insertion of girders. In this area there are many election "posters" and other casual inscriptions painted on the walls, with the help of which the former director of excavations, Della Corte, was able to compile a "directory" containing 550 names. This part of the town dates from Pompeii's final period and was mostly occupied by tradesmen. Among the establishments to be seen here are an ironmonger's shop; beyond this to the right a fuller's and dyer's workshop (Fullonica di Stefano), with two restored pressing machines; and beyond this, to the south, the House with the Cryptoporticus, with a magnificent painted frieze (in a passage leading to the cellar) depicting 20 episodes from the "Iliad" and other Homeric poems.