Abstract:

The Ariadna House o dei Capitelli Colorati is one of the biggest in Pompeya with a 1700 m2 superficy in its final phase, though it may be bigger in previous stages, as it included the western nearby House of La Fontana or of the Gran Duca. The closest houses Caccia Antica, Gran duca and Capitelli Figurati prove the late occupation of the gran insula, from mid to the II century b. C. last quarter. We may infer from this fact that this wide and irregular zone was a non occupied space in earlier phases. The initial project’s aiming was to localise the city intern enclosure, excavating the ground levels previous to the house building. Nevertheless, the project became progressively more complex, with new mysteries and problems appearing, referring to the “Vicolo Storto” genesis and the house’s history. The Ariadna House excavations took place from 2004 to2008. Along with the Municipal Archaeological Research Service (SIAM), the project counts on the Archaeological Museums from Alicante (MARQ) and Valence (MPV) researchers’ support, as well as the archaeological departments of the Alicante, Cadiz, Murcia y Valence Universities, the Cartographic Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Valence and the Spanish History and Archaeology School of the CSIC in Roma’s support. In order to show a preview of the results obtained, an exposition was set up in the Archaeological Museums from Alicante (MARQ) and Valence (MPV) and a complete catalogue (Ribera, Olcina and Ballester 2007), as a summary of the excavations’ final report.