According to Garcia y Garcia Region VII, Insula VI was one of the insulae most devastated over the years since its excavation.
He calls it the “Cinderella” of Pompeii. Between the years 1759 and 1762 it was vandalised and stripped by the Bourbons, then re-interred.
Then came the slow and non-systematic uncovering again before the final destruction in September 1943.
The area was ignored and abandoned during the years following the war, which reduced the insula to a heap of bricks and masonry.
See Garcia y Garcia,
L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.102).
According to Fiorelli,
Also here
in the southern corner of the insula, it had three doorways, the Niche of the Penates, the
podium covered in marble with three small urns, the hearth, the mouth of the
cistern, a room for the customers, and an access linked with the previous
Taberna.
On the corner
pillar, and really on the side turned to the Forum, the following Samnite epigraph
was seen, appearing after the fall of the plaster that covered the great stones
of Nocera, in which the pillar was formed:
(23-25. Altra ve n’e nell’angola meridionale
dell’isola, la quale ha tre porte, la nicchia de’ Penati, il podio rivestito di
marmi con tre piccole urne, il focolare, la bocca della cisterna, una cella per
gli avventori, ed un adito, di comunicazione con la taberna precedente.
Sul pilastro angolare, e propriamente nella faccia
rivolta al Foro, s’intravede la seguente epigrafe sannitica, apparso dopo la
caduta dello intonaco che covriva le grandi pietre di Nocera, onde il pilastro
era formato:
See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.160)
VII.6.23-27 Pompeii. Plan based on PPM.
See Carratelli, G. P., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici: Vol. VII.
Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana,
p. 182.
VII.6.23 Pompeii. March 2009. Entrance.
VII.6.23 Pompeii. May 2005. Entrance, looking north-west.
Built against the west side of the pilaster on the north side of the entrance was a hearth, destroyed in the bombing.
VII.6.23 Pompeii. March 2009. Threshold or sill.