“It seems that Campania was quite crucial as a region in Roman Italy for developing new plant varieties,” says Dr. Marzano, “and one possibility is that in part the presence of so many large villas on the bay of Naples, and the fact that their owners could acquire skilled labor, contributed to this.”
Dr. Barrett sees this trend of “creating artificial, natural landscapes within the house…as expressing a desire to control the natural world.” Ironically, the volcanic eruption would leave such desires grossly unfulfilled less than two decades later, yet even this short-lived glimpse into disaster recovery techniques in the past has implications for how we view similar actions in our present.
For instance, Dr. Gleason sees parallels between the garden at CRC and disaster recovery methods in Haiti and other earthquake-prone areas, where the desire for safe, open spaces has spurred many post-earthquake building plans.
Overall, the CRC Project stands to contribute much-needed and anticipated results to the field of Pompeiian and Roman domestic and urban life, expanding how we think of interconnectedness and diversity of experiences amongst ancient populations. Anyone interested in following the project is encouraged to keep an eye on their blog and Facebook page.
The Casa della Regina Project would like to thank:
For permission to carry out fieldwork: the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, and Dr. Gabriel Zuchtriegel (director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii)
For assistance and support in the field: Dr. Giuseppe Scarpati (Archaeology Officer for Regio VIII of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii)
For institutional support:
2022 season: Department of Classics, Cornell University; Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS); Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University.
Institutional support for previous seasons has also been provided by the Department of Classics, University of Reading.
For funding:
2022 season: National Geographic Society; Dumbarton Oaks; Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies; Department of Classics, Cornell University; Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies (Hirsch Fund, Lewin Gift Fund, and CIAMS Supplementary Grants); College of Arts & Sciences, Cornell University (Rosenthal Award).
Additional funding for previous seasons has also come from the Rust Family Foundation, the European Research Council, the IMAGINE Campaign at the University of Reading, and at Cornell University: the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Society for the Humanities, the President’s Council of Cornell Women, and the Cornell Institute for European Studies).
