Finds in the House of the Bull, Pompeii (VI 1,7)

by Mary Harrsch © 2024

While browsing the information about the House of the Bull on the Swedish Pompeii Project website, I noticed they referred to a section of the Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia where the excavation journal described what was found in the house during excavations in 1836 and 1837. The PAH is a bit difficult to decipher since this excavation occurrred before Giuseppe Fiorelli developed his numbering system for structures in Pompeii, but I think I was able to tease out which sections were actually talking about excavations in the House of the Bull and not excavations of the House of Adonis and Venus, structures across the street from the House of the Bull, and structures near the House of Meleager, all in progress at the same time.

To me, it appears the residents of the House of the Bull managed to escape the eruption with most of their more valuable possessions. With the exception of a candelabra, a few relatively low value bronze coins, a broken fountain figure depicting a horse that was not found in the atrium so was probably in storage, and miscellaneous cookware, little of significant value was found.

I noticed no finds of metal furniture attachments. Herculaneum was encased by hot pyroclastic flows during the later Pelean phase of the eruption. There the intense heat of over 752 degrees Fahrenheit carbonized wood furnishings so they were found in situ. In Pompeii, however, wood furniture would not have been preserved because structures were buried during the cooler Plinian phase of the eruption, so wooden objects deteriorated over the centuries. You would think an upper class dwelling in Pompeii, though, would have contained at least the remains of metal furniture attachments from more luxurious furnishings. But none are mentioned in the excavation reports. To me, this would point to their removal that would have occurred during escape, as no walls breached by looters or scavengers were found, like those in the House of the Prince of Naples.

Although this statuette of Mercury is not from a lararium in the House of the Bull, it is dated to the 1st century CE. It was found in Boscoreale and is now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland where I photographed it in 2015.

There were, however, small bronze statuettes of Lares and the deity Mercury recovered. I wondered why these items of worship would not have been deemed important, so I asked ChatGPT about it. The AI explained:

"In Roman culture, the Lares and other household deities were considered essential for the protection and prosperity of the home. Leaving the lararium figures behind may have been a deliberate act, as it was common to leave religious objects in place to safeguard the residence and its remaining occupants, even if temporarily. This could indicate that the family intended to return or hoped to safeguard the home’s spiritual integrity...preserving the space as a place of worship even in their absence."