Herculaneum. The Samnite House

The 'Samnite House' at Herculaneum is one of the 'old' houses. It went through many phases, all of which saw its original size being cut down. The peristyle was sold off and abosrbed into a new house next door. An upstairs level was created with a balcony to look down over the huge atrium (hall) but the balcony and its columns were filled in so that the new level could be partitioned off as a separate apartment. The house ended up with its huge original hall but only a few small rooms around it. The Samnite House is prescribed content for the UK-based OCR examination board's A-level paper Cities of Roman Italy (CC6).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Herculaneum
• Samnite
• House
• Vesuvius
• AD79
• Roman

[KSHSClassCiv]

The upper part is rebuilt: the pyrcoastic mud flow partly demolished the Herculaneum houses but the debris was sometimes found in roughly the right location. Footage of the disovery of this house shows the upper parts pushed to one side and over. These elements were preserved and reused in the reconstruction. Moreover, the heat of the pyroclastic mud flow carbonized the wood, destroying its structural integrity so this invariably has to be replaced.

[IwanttoliveinParis]

I've been to Pompeii but not Herculaneum. I've read that roofs survived at Herculaneum much more so than at Pompeii. Is this roof original or rebuilt?