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 –
VII.6.1-6 –
Diversi aditi in gran parte obliterati, che trovansi sulla fronte
settentrionale dell’isola a comminciare da occidente, sembrano aver l’ingresso
a tre botteghe, ad una casa, e a due gradinate indipendenti per cenacoli
sovrapposti.
(VII.6.1-6 – Several entrances in large part
obliterated that were found on the north side of the insula beginning on the
west side, they seemed to be the entrances to three shops, to a house, and to
two independent steps leading to rooms above.)
See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.159).
According to NdS – it was included in description of VII.6.3 –
The first room to the left in the east wall of the atrium (room 4 had a doorway linking through to room 5 (on their plan). The direct doorway to room 5 is the entrance at VI.6.4 which opens onto the Via delle Terme in all its width. Evidently it was a shop, which had some connection to the owner of the house, as one often sees at Pompeii. The stucco of the shop was destroyed.
VII.6.4-6 Pompeii. 1910 plan. By Spano.
See Notizie
degli Scavi di Antichità, 1910, fig. 1, p. 437.
According to NdS,
Il primo vano a sinistra della parete orientale
introduce in un piccolo ambiente quadrato 4, conservante intonaco corroso nel
piede delle pareti, ambiente dal quale si passa in un secondo 5, che si apre
sulla via delle Terme quasi in tutta la sua larghezza (no.IV). Evidentemente
era una bottega, con la quale aveva qualche rapporto il proprietario della
casa, come spesso si osserva in Pompei. L’intonaco della bottega era distrutto.
See Notizie degli Scavi, 1910, p.440.
VII.6.4 Pompeii. October
2023. Looking south to site of shop entrance. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
VII.6.4 Pompeii. September 2021.
Looking south to site of shop entrance. Photo
courtesy of Klaus Heese.
VII.6.4 Pompeii. December 2005. Site of entrance, looking south.
VII.6.4 Pompeii. May 2005. Looking south from shop-room, into remains of a rear room linked to the atrium of VII.6.3 by three steps.
This room would originally have been a cubiculum in the north-east corner of the atrium.
The next remains of a room to the south would also have been a cubiculum.
The mound of earth would have been the site of the closed ala on the east side of the atrium.
See Eschebach, L., 1993. Gebäudeverzeichnis und Stadtplan der antiken Stadt Pompeji. Köln: Böhlau. (p.293)
VII.6.4 Pompeii, shown only in the lower left corner. Looking north towards Vicolo di Modesto, abt. 1870, on right.