The Domus Nozze D'Argento in Pompeii: Structural Diagnosis Using Geophysical Methods

Abstract

Monitoring of ancient buildings is an issue of great interest in view of a proper restoration. This paper describes the noninvasive monitoring of the Domus Nozze D'Argento in Pompeii. The Roman house, as occurred for many other buildings in Pompei, was buried in the ash from the 79 ad eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It was excavated in 1893, the year of the silver wedding anniversary of King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Savoy. This event gave the name to the Roman domus whose excavations uncovered a monumental architecture composed of an atrium and two gardens. The atrium is characterized by four tall Corinthian columns and an elegant exedra with fine decoration. Of the two gardens, one, the larger, includes a central pool and a triclinium, and the other one is composed of a bathhouse, open-air swimming pool and a living room embellished by a mosaic floor and wall paintings. Over time, the weathering and the presence of heavy and rigid concrete structures have caused some static problems to be addressed by restorations respectful of the mechanical behaviour of the original load-bearing framework. To collect data useful for structural diagnosis, the geophysical investigation was undertaken based on the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR). The results allowed to evidence the conservation state of the investigated walls and columns using the high frequency antenna (2 GHz) and the identification of buried pipes using the 600-MHz antenna data.