Marble use and reuse at Pompeii and Herculaneum: the evidence from the bars

Abstract

The marble-clad surfaces of the numerous bars or shops (so-calledthermopolia) of Pompeii and Herculaneum are a vast and hitherto untapped source of information about marble use beyond the confines of public building and élite houses. Four field seasons of survey work have documented 49 bars at Pompeii and eight at Herculaneum with over 8,000 pieces of stone, mainly marble. This paper discusses the results of this project: first, the types of stone used on these bars and how they were displayed; second, what their quantities and distribution, within these cities and on individual bars, reveal about the pervasiveness of the wider pan-Mediterranean marble trade; third, what we can say about where these materials came from and how they were acquired, and what this in turn reveals about the economics of reuse of architectural materials in the Vesuvian cities.