Daily life objects from the Vesuvian area

collections

After Pompeii and Herculaneum were dug up and unearthed in the 18th century, the discovery gave a fundamental contribution to the knowledge of a quite original and almost unknown aspect, at the time, concerning classical antiquity: the daily life of ancient Romans. Excavation campaigns carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries not only revealed temples, public buildings, private houses, frescoes and mosaics, but also an enormous amount of cookware, pottery, pieces of furniture, etc, which sparked such an incredible interest and curiosity among scholars and amateurs, as to have an influence on the taste and the artistic production of the time.

The relics, first held in the Palace of Portici, over the first decades of the 19th century were gradually moved to Naples, to the seat of the current National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The display, based on classification criteria, so typical in late 19th and early 20th centuries’ trends, is organized according to the different materials, the categories and types of objects, as well as their shapes and function, providing visitors with a rich and diversified catalogue of artefacts. This has proved fundamental for the reconstruction of the socio-economic life of Vesuvian sites. Indeed, these relics represent the most significant evidence, in order to cast a light on habits and costumes of the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Through them, their cultural and religious traditions, as well as their social and commercial relations with Rome and the other provinces of the empire are also known.

The visit unfolds in five rooms. The first room (LXXXIX – 89) is devoted to some specific aspects of daily life in the Roman world: household religion, pieces of furnishings, lighting, music and medicine. Room LXXXVIII – 88 exhibits an accurate selection of glazed pottery, an original oriental craft production, which is quite rare, due to its difficult execution technique. The table and the banquet are protagonist of room LXXXVII – 87, with a rich display of bronze artefacts for the kitchen, the table and the pantry. The last two rooms (LXXXVI - 86 and LXXXV - 85) are focused on glass-ware in the Roman world, the different production techniques and the various functions of use (containers for female make up, for cooking, for funerary use, or merely for decoration purposes).

second floor
da Pompei, Casa del Menandro, metà del I secolo d.C. - inv. 145524
Silver mirror decorated with a female figure in relief.
From Pompeii, House of the Menander, mid-1st century A.D. - inv. 145524
Bronze statuette of the goddess Diana
drom Herculaneum, late 1st century BC, early 1st century AD - inv. 5024
Bed decoration in bronze, with bust of the goddess Pomona
From Herculaneum, 1st century AD - inv. 5150
Bronze oil-lamp decorated with a representation of a child and a goose
da Ercolano, 1st century AD - inv. 72255
Bronze piglet-shaped pie-mould
From Pompeii, 1st century AD - inv. 76352
Dental pincers in bronze
From Pompeii, 1st century AD - inv. 78029
Bronze volute krater
From Pompeii, House of Volusius Faustus, late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD - inv. 109697
Ivory plaque with a head of a Maenad for furniture decoration
From Pompeii, late 1st century BC - inv. 109887
vory plaque with a head of a Maenad for furniture decoration
From Pompeii, late 1st century BC - inv. 109887
Bronze statuette of the goddess Fortuna
From Pompeii, 1st century AD - inv. 111697
Frog-shaped fountain. Glazed pottery
from Pompeii, 1st century AD – inv. 121322
“Millefiori” glass bowl
Vesuvian area, late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD - inv. S.N
So-called blue vase (small amphora). Cameo glass
from Pompeii, mid-1st century AD - inv. 13521.
tag — Mann, Collections
Other collections.
complete list