IX.4.18 Pompeii. Terme Centrali
or Central Baths.
Main Entrance from Via di Nola.
Excavated 1817, 1836 and 1877-8.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Terme Centrali or Central Baths Plan
The photographs for the inside of the baths can be found on these pages for the main entrance at IX.4.18.
LE TERME CENTRALI E IL CALCO
DELLO SCHELETRO DEL BAMBINO
Il complesso
delle Terme Centrali apre per la prima volta al pubblico dopo i restauri.
In esposizione,
in uno degli ambienti di ingresso, il calco dello scheletro della vittima di un
bambino di 7/8 anni rinvenuto durante i lavori, e già precedentemente intercettato
all’epoca degli scavi ottocenteschi.
L’intero
complesso è stato oggetto di interventi di consolidamento (trattamento
delle lacune, consolidamenti, sarcitura delle lesioni, ripristino delle sommità
murarie; ripristino dei livelli dei davanzali e delle soglie; sostituzione di
architravi) e di restauro (revisione e restauro dei paramenti murari e degli
intonaci; pulitura e restauro dell’impluvio, delle vasche e della
scala; restauro dei tubuli nel calidarium), realizzati con fondi ordinari.
Poste
all’incrocio tra via di Nola e via Stabiana, le terme si sviluppano sullo
spazio di un intero isolato - l'insula 4 della Regio IX-, riutilizzato a
seguito dello spianamento degli edifici preesistenti, probabilmente danneggiati
dal terremoto del 62 d.C.
Al momento
dell’eruzione la costruzione del complesso non risultava ultimata, ma
l’ambizioso progetto di monumentalità si intuisce già̀ dalla facciata che dà
sul cortile. Le sale per i bagni si presentavano molto più̀ spaziose e luminose
rispetto alle altre terme di Pompei. Manca invece la separazione tra parte
femminile e maschile e si suppone che fossero previste fasce orarie diverse per
donne e uomini.
Vedi Cartella Stampa PAP
Novembre 2019
THE CENTRAL BATHS AND THE CAST OF THE CHILD'S SKELETON
The Central Baths
complex has opened to the public for the first time after the restorations.
On display, in
one of the entrance areas, the cast of the skeleton of the victim of a 7/8 year
old child found during the works, and already previously intercepted at the
time of the nineteenth-century excavations.
The entire complex has been the subject of consolidation (treatment of
gaps, consolidations, repair of damage, restoration of wall tops; restoration
of the levels of window sills and thresholds; replacement of lintels) and restoration works (revision and restoration of wall vestments and plasters;
cleaning and restoration of the impluvium, the baths and the staircase;
restoration of the conduits in the calidarium), carried out with ordinary
funds.
Located at the intersection of Via di Nola and Via Stabiana, the baths spread
over the space of an entire block - the Regio IX-insula 4 -, reused following
the flattening of the pre-existing buildings, probably damaged by the
earthquake of 62 D.C.
At the time of the eruption the construction of the complex was not
completed, but the ambitious
monumental project can be deduced from the façade overlooking the courtyard.
The bathing rooms
were much more spacious and brightly lit than in the other baths in Pompeii. On
the other hand, there is a lack of separate female and male areas and it is
assumed that different time slots were to be provided for women and men.
See PAP press release November 2019
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019. Looking
west along Via di Nola, from entrance doorway. Photo courtesy of
Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2011. Looking west on Via di Nola.
Terme Centrali or Central Baths. Front of north wall and main entrance “a” (in centre) on Via di Nola. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IX.4.18 Pompeii.
December 2005. Terme Centrali or Central Baths. Main entrance “a” from Via di
Nola.
According to La Rocca, De Vos and De Vos this was the main entrance to the baths.
Viola suggests this in his excavation report because on the left side were two small rooms.
It seemed to him these could have been, a ticket office “b”: and a room “c” where valuables could be left with a capsarius (clothes minder).
See Viola L,
1879. Gli Scavi di Pompei dal 1873 al
1878, p. 30-1.
See La Rocca, De
Vos and De Vos, 1976. Guida Archeologica di Pompei. Mondadori Editore, p. 307-9.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Plan of the Baths on information noticeboard.
The entrance from the Via Nola is at the top. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Plan of the Baths on information noticeboard.
The entrance from the Via Nola is on the left. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October
2020. Information noticeboard. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October
2020.
Plan
of the Baths on information noticeboard. The entrance from the Via Nola is at
the top. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Looking north from vestibule of Central Baths towards entrance doorway onto Via di Nola, opposite V.1.7.
Photo
courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2017.
Looking south towards east side, from entrance “a” into baths palaestra “d”. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2015. Looking south from entrance “a” into baths palaestra “d”.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2005. Looking south from entrance “a” into baths palaestra “d”.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2004. Looking south across the north portico towards the east side of the palaestra “d”, from the entrance.
A depression in the ground on the east side would have been where a large outdoor pool “h” was to be built.
IX.4.18 Pompeii, May 2018.
Looking south across the east side of palaestra “d” from the entrance doorway, during renovation. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2011. Entrance “a” with rooms “b” and “c”. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
According to Viola these two small rooms were probably intended to be a ticket office “b” and a deposit room “c” in which valuables could be left with a capsarius (clothes minder). The entrance led directly into the palaestra “d”.
See Viola L, 1879. Gli Scavi di Pompei dal 1873 al 1878, p. 30-1.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. 2018. Looking north to entrance on Via di
Nola. Photograph © Parco
Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2011.
Staircase on north side of baths, next to rooms “b” and “c”. (taken from IX.4.5). Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. September 2004. Looking south-east from the entrance “a”.
In the north-east corner of the palaestra was a doorway leading into an unfinished room “i”, probably the apodyterium (changing room).
However, Mau believed that the room, together with the other smaller rooms “k”, “l”, “m”, “n” and “o” around it, would have been used as shops to sell things for the convenience of the bathers and users of the baths.
The frigidarium “p” (cold) was to the south of the unfinished room, whether it was used as a changing room or shops.
It was a large rectangular room with a basin for cold baths along the east side, opposite the three windows. This cold bath was nearly five feet deep.
According to La Rocca, De Vos and De Vos “p” was the apodyterium and there was no frigidarium.
The frigidarium or apodyterium led into the tepidarium “q” (warm), which also had three large windows all opening out onto the palaestra “d”.
The tepidarium led into the caldarium “s” (hot), which was placed so that its three large windows would have received the greatest amount of warm afternoon and evening sun.
There were five smaller windows built into the south wall of the caldarium. These looked out onto a small garden area “t”.
On the east side of the tepidarium and caldarium was the small round laconicum or sweating room “r”, made to feel larger by four semi-circular niches, and lit by three small round windows high up above the cornice of the vaulted ceiling.
The vaulted ceiling was partly conserved, whereas the ceilings of the warm and hot rooms were totally collapsed.
None of these rooms were finished, although the hollow floors and walls had been built into the warm, hot and sweating rooms.
No marble had been laid into the bath pools.
The two furnaces had not yet been built. These would have been built in the area “t” by the entrance at IX.4.15.
See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, June
1877, (p.445, description and finds).
See Bullettino dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza
Archeologica (DAIR), 1877, (p.214-223)
See Bullettino dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza
Archeologica (DAIR), 1878, (p251- 254)
See La Rocca, De Vos and De Vos, 1976. Guida Archeologica di Pompei. Mondadori Editore, p. 307-9.
According to Jashemski, the five small windows of the caldarium looked out onto a small garden “t”.
The garden would have had a wall enclosing it, to hide from view the men walking back and forth tending the furnaces.
The wall was only partially completed.
See Jashemski, W. F., 1993. The Gardens of Pompeii, Volume II: Appendices. New York: Caratzas, p. 235).
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Aerial view of room “i” with red circle marking skeleton, rooms “k”, “L” and “m” on the north side, and rooms “n” and “o” on the east side.
Photo courtesy of
Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October
2020. Information noticeboard. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Looking north-east towards rooms “n” and “o”. Photo courtesy of
Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Looking north-east across room “i” towards skeleton outside room "n". Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
Lo scheletro della piccola
vittima
Ad aprile del
2018, all’interno del grande complesso, è stato rinvenuto lo scheletro di
un bambino di 7 -8 anni. Il ritrovamento è apparso straordinario sia per la
fortuita e inaspettata scoperta nel corso dell’intervento di consolidamento e
restauro del complesso termale già scavato nell’800, sia per la collocazione
inusuale del corpicino rispetto alla stratigrafia vulcanica del 79 d.c.
Lo scheletro è
emerso durante la pulizia di un ambiente di ingresso. Al di sotto di uno strato
di circa 10 centimetri è affiorato prima il piccolo cranio e in un secondo
momento le ossa, disposte in maniera raccolta, che hanno permesso di formulare
le prime ipotesi circa l’età del fanciullo che, in fuga dall’ eruzione,
aveva trovato ricovero nelle Terme Centrali.
La peculiarità del ritrovamento è che lo scheletro era immerso nel flusso
piroclastico (mix di gas e materiale vulcanico). Normalmente nella
stratigrafia dell’eruzione del 79 d.C. è presente nel livello più basso il
lapillo e poi la cenere che sigilla tutto. In questo caso si doveva trattare di
un ambiente chiuso dove il lapillo non è riuscito ad entrare né a provocare il
crollo dei tetti, mentre è penetrato direttamente il flusso piroclastico dalle
finestre, nella fase finale dell’eruzione.
Si tratta di
ambienti già scavati tra il 1877 e il 1878. In quell’occasione lo scheletro
doveva essere già stato intercettato, ma inspiegabilmente non scavato, forse
perché lo strato vulcanico non permetteva la realizzazione di un calco.
Lo scheletro,
oggi al Laboratorio di Ricerche applicate del Parco Archeologico di Pompei, è
stato oggetto di indagini antropologiche, che vengono condotte in maniera
sistematica fin dal ritrovamento dei reperti.
Vedi Cartella Stampa PAP
Novembre 2019
The Skeleton of the Little Victim
In April 2018, inside the large complex, the skeleton of a 7-8 year old child was found. The discovery
was extraordinary because of the fortuitous and unexpected discovery during the
consolidation and restoration of the thermal complex already excavated in the
1800s, and for the unusual placement of the little body with respect to the
volcanic stratigraphy of 79 AD.
The skeleton
emerged while cleaning an entrance area. Below a layer of about 10cm the small
skull was found first and then the bones, arranged in a collected manner, which
made it possible to formulate initial hypotheses about the age of the child
who, fleeing the eruption, had found shelter in the Central Baths.
The peculiarity of
the find is that the skeleton was immersed in the pyroclastic flow (a mixture
of gas and volcanic material). Normally in the stratigraphy of the eruption of
79 AD there is lapilli in the lowest level and then ash that seals everything.
In this case it must have been a closed environment where the lapilli could not
enter or cause the roof to collapse, while the pyroclastic flow entered directly
through the windows, in the final phase of the eruption.
These are rooms
already excavated between 1877 and 1878. On that occasion the skeleton must
have already been intercepted, but inexplicably not excavated, perhaps because
the volcanic layer did not allow the realization of a cast.
The skeleton, now in
the Applied Research Laboratory of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, has been
the subject of anthropological investigations, which have been conducted
systematically since the finds were made.
See PAP press release November 2019
IX.4.18 Pompeii. 2018. Location in room "i", outside room "n", where the skeleton of a child of about 7-8 years old was discovered.
According to the PAP noticeboard, the skeletal remains were undisturbed, but had been repositioned, with great attention, probably by the excavators of the third quarter of the 19th century.
Photograph ©
Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Discovery outside room "n" of the skeleton of a
child. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe
Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. 2018. Discovery outside room "n"
of the skeleton of a child. Photograph
© Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019. Cast of skeleton found outside room “n”. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. 2018. Skeleton found outside room “n”.
Laboratory studies of the skeleton based on the
measurement of the long bones and on dental development have allowed the PAP to
estimate the age as 7-8 years old. Photograph © Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Corridor leading east in north-east corner. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020. Flooring in corridor leading east. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. March 2018. Corridor leading east in north-east corner. New floor emerging during restorations.
Photograph ©
Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Room “i”, south wall with doorway into room “p”, Frigidarium. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii.
December 2019. Descriptive plan of Frigidarium “p” and Tepidarium “q”. Photo
courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Descriptive plan of Frigidarium “p” on left, Tepidarium “q” in centre, Caldarium “s” on right, and room “r” upper centre.
Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Frigidarium “p”, looking south towards doorway into Tepidarium “q”. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “p”, west end of south wall, looking towards doorway to room “q”. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “p”, apodyterium or frigidarium, looking towards east wall with recess/niche, with doorway to room “q” on right.
Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “p”, apodyterium or frigidarium, recess/niche in east wall. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Room “p”, apodyterium or frigidarium,
looking towards east wall with recess/niche above pool. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “p”, apodyterium or frigidarium, looking towards north wall with doorway to room “i”. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “q”, tepidarium, looking towards east wall with doorway to room “r”, and two doorways in south wall leading into room “s”, on right.
Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “q”, tepidarium, looking towards north wall with two doorways into room “p”. On the right is the doorway to room “r”.
Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. Photo c1930s by Tatiana Warscher of door from tepidarium to apodyterium.
According to Garcia y Garcia, this bathing complex was excavated between 1877 and 1878, and would have been the largest and most modern in Pompeii.
The entire area was a building site, but construction work was brutally interrupted by the eruption of 79.
During the bombing of the night of September 16th, 1943 the tepidarium “q” was hit although the report called it the laconicum, together with the demolition of the eastern wall in Opus incertum laterizia for the distance of 4 x 8m. Sadly there were other damages and partial demolition of the brick structure.
See Garcia y
Garcia, L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, (p.153).
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Tepidarium “q”, looking
towards south wall with two doorways into Caldarium “s”. Photo
courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii.
December 2019. Descriptive plan showing Caldarium. Photo
courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. October 2020.
Room “s”, caldarium, looking towards north wall with two doorways from room “q”. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019. Room “s”, Caldarium, looking towards east wall. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii.
Terme Centrali. 2018. Bath at east end of caldarium “s”. Photograph
© Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. Central Baths. May 1886. Bath at east end of caldarium “s” showing hypocaust.
Courtesy of Society of Antiquaries. Fox Collection.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Caldarium “s”, looking south-east towards hypocaust flooring beneath bath at east end. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Caldarium “s”, looking south towards hypocaust flooring beneath bath at east end. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. Central Baths. May 1886. Looking west from bath end of caldarium “s”. Hypocaust of caldarium.
Courtesy of Society of Antiquaries. Fox Collection.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019. Caldarium “s”, looking towards south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Caldarium
“s”, north wall, doorway to Tepidarium “q”. Photo
courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019. Descriptive notice board regarding Caldarium “s”. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Caldarium
“s”, flue tiles in flooring. Photo courtesy of
Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. December 2019.
Caldarium
“s”, flue tiles in flooring. Photo courtesy of
Giuseppe Ciaramella.
IX.4.18 Pompeii. 1974. Flue tile built into the walls of the Central Baths. Photo courtesy of Roger B Ulrich. © Roger B Ulrich.
Part 2 Part 3 Terme Centrali or Central Baths Plan