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Two mural paintings located in the “House of Garden”, recently excavated in the Regio V of the archaeological site of Pompeii (Campania, Southern Italy), were studied. The mural paintings are in room 3 of the house. The first is a large-scale scene representing Venus with a male figure (possibly Adonis or Paris since he has a bow) and Eros, while the second one is a fine female portrait, perhaps depicting the domina of the house. All analyses were carried out in situ, using a new non-destructive methodology based on the acquisition of good-resolution visible images and the chemical information obtained by a portable hand-held X-ray fluorescence device. All data were statistically combined using a computer program, named SmART_scan, obtaining maps of the distribution of the elements (or compounds) on the painting. Visible induced luminescence (VIL) was used to confirm the presence of Egyptian Blue. The study performed on the two mural paintings allowed us to identify the various pigments used and to determine the presence of degradation products, such as soluble salts and a violet-black discoloration that, in the first painting, has modified some of the original colours, producing substantial changes in the interpretation of the figures. The results of the work show that the SmART_scan methodology, coupled with an X-ray fluorescence device and a good-resolution visible image, is a valid tool for obtaining the spacial distribution of each element and often of the pigments as combination of them, on large surfaces in a short time and at low cost.

In 2015 the Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna took part at the Grande Progetto Pompei – Piano della Conoscenza, with the task to accomplish a modern and complete documentation of the so-called Lotto 3 in Pompeii. The new record was carried out by means of integrated innovative diagnostic survey techniques (laser scanning, photogrammetry, UAV, geophysical prospections applied for mapping subsoil and standing structures, 3D modelling and BIM applications) in order to provide a total documentary research of the whole analysed sector. After this experience, in 2016 a new project has been started in agreement with the competent Soprintendenza Pompeii, focused at the study, preservation and enhancement of the House of Obellio Firmo, included in the lotto 3 of the Roman city. The new research contemplates an in-depth analysis of the building, employing systematically laser scanning and photogrammetry methods in the direction to generate a geometrically and photometrically accurate 3D model of the house. This model is going to constitute the starting point for the further analysis of the walls stratigraphies and for the mapping and monitoring of the structures' degradation, just turned on during the GPP. The full-scale deepened documentation of the building also includes a detailed geophysical mapping of all the accessible domestic spaces, having recourse to the ground penetrating radar technique. The preliminary results achieved by the non-invasive prospecting survey, integrated with the analysis of the outstanding walls and building techniques, are supporting in a worthwhile way the archaeological understanding and interpretation of the house's history, with both regard to the early genesis and main evolutive phases during the centuries. In order to allow the management and sharing of the amount of the gathered information, the data are going to be organised within a building information model (BIM). The triple objective of the project includes: - the reconstruction of a fragment of the ancient urban landscape in Pompeii during the oldest phase, before the 79 AC and with particular attention to the Samnitic period; the outlining of a well-founded strategy of intervention for the restoration and enhancement of the House of Obellio Firmo; the re-opening of the building to the sightseeings tours and its restitution to the wider fruition.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Detached red tessera from the mosaic. Figure S2. Representative DRIFT spectra of red and orange tesserae (red) and calcite standard (black). Figure S3. Representative Raman spectrum of white tesserae. Figure S4. Normalized net counts of S in different white tesserae. Figure S5. Representative Raman spectrum of black tesserae and leucite standard. Figure S6. Mean values of Fe/Ca normalized net counts of red and orange colored tesserae. Figure S7. Ca and Fe lines intensity variation after 28 shots obtained by means of LIBS.

A new stratigraphic survey of the pyroclastic deposits blanketing Pompeii ruins shows departures from prior reconstruction of the events that occurred inside the town during the two main phases (pumice fallout and pyroclastic density currents) of the ad 79 Vesuvius eruption. We document the depth and distribution of subaerial erosion surfaces in the upper part of the pyroclastic sequence, formed during two short-lived breaks occurring in the course of the second phase of the eruption. These pauses could explain why 50% of the victims were found in the streets during the pyroclastic density currents phase.

S03.06 - Volcanoes and Human History Recent excavations at Pompeii: new findings and their volcanological implications Claudio Scarpati1, Annamaria Perrotta1, Andrea Montanaro1, Domenico Sparice1, Alberta Martellone2, Arianna Spinosa2, Massimo Osanna2 1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy 2Parco Archeologico di Pompei, Italy Detailed descriptions of the effects of Plinian explosive eruptions on urban settlements are rare. For this reason, volcanologists spent considerable time studing the destruction of the roman towns around Vesuvius occurred during the 79 AD eruption. At Pompeii, during the eruption accumulated about three metres of pumice lapilli from the eruptive cloud and successively one to three metres of stratified ash aggraded from pyroclastic currents. Both phases caused hundreds of victims. All reconstructions followed the chronology of Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption and wrote two famous epistulae to the historian Tacitus. In these letters the eruption is described as a continuous event that lasted about nineteen hours. New stratigraphic data collected during recent excavations in the Schola Armaturarum, a famous building located in the central part of the Pompeii archaeological site, seems to contradict the never discussed before continuity of the eruption. Inside this building a large quantity of debris from walls and roofs was found lying through the whole pyroclastic sequence. Roofing tiles were found in the lapilli fall deposits, while eastwest trending walls were partly demolished in the ashy deposit accumulated during the flowage of the pyroclastic currents. A relevant observation is the presence of an erosive surface, 55 cm depth and 320 cm wide, covered with a few cm thick lens of reworked material cut into the middle part of the pyroclastic succession. The finding of this structure suggests a time gap in the eruptive phenomena affecting the city of Pompeii; this pause could have pushed the inhabitants, recovered indoor during the fallout phase, to leave their homes trying to reach safer places.

This paper shows the first results of a diagnostic survey of the fresco paintings in two domus of the Region V in Pompeii, the Domus of C. Iulius Polybius and the Domus of Casti Amanti, which stand out for archaeological relevance and decorative asset. Especially, these cases of study were selected because pose special challenges for damage detection and conservation, due to the presence of large parts of not excavated soil behind walls and frescoes painting surfaces. The survey has been realized within the framework of “The Great Pompei Project” that aims to enhance the effectiveness of the actions and interventions for protecting the archaeological area of Pompeii by developing a special urgent programme of conservation, maintenance, and restoration. One of the main areas of intervention, where this survey is included, is the consolidation and restoration of decorated surfaces. The diagnostic methodology applied in this work is the active thermography by means of an IR thermal camera that acquires the frescoes painting surface emission due to a thermal load applied to the frescoes itself. The measurement has been conducted in reflection mode, i.e. with the camera and the thermal load source located at the same side of the painted wall, the only mode of operation in thick walls as the ancient ones. The survey allowed identifying the main frescoes damages like detachments or delaminations, fissures and moist areas. In this paper, the main problems related to the in-situ measurement by active thermography have been also illustrated and their influence on the diagnostic accuracy quantified. Specifically the issues of uniformity of the thermal load applied to the portion of the frescoes under measurement and the emissivity of its surface were deeply analyzed and their impact to the measurement quality identified