Development of Bathing Culture in Pompeii: Stabian Baths

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Monika Trümper
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441747846

The characteristics of bathing culture in the Roman imperial period have long been examined in scholarship. However, the predecessors of the late Republican period have received little attention, even though over 20 baths of this period have been discovered in the western Mediterranean. Baths do not play a significant role in current debates about the expansion of Rome in the western Mediterranean, and topics such as urbanization, cultural exchange, transfer of knowledge and integration in the Roman world. The only exception are the Stabian Baths in Pompeii, which the architect Hans Eschebach discussed in a book, published in 1979. For this complex, he reconstructed an influential model of cultural-historical development: on the terrain of Pompeii’s Archaic Altstadt wall, a Greek palaestra with baths would have been built in the 5th century BC and transformed, in five phases, into Roman-type baths until the early Imperial period. While scholars repeatedly criticized this model, they did not carry out any new research. A project that was funded by the EXC Topoi from 2015 to 2018 aimed at filling this gap in research. Four campaigns in the Republican Baths of Pompeii and three campaigns in the Stabian Baths yielded significant results for revising the history of the city and of ancient bathing culture. Both baths were built in the second half of the 2nd century BC as Roman-type baths, on largely unbuilt terrain. The Republican Baths were abandoned in 30/20 BC, whereas the Stabian Baths were modernized three times before the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Funding is requested here for the fourth and last excavation campaign in the Stabian Baths and for evaluating and promptly publishing this building. The campaign will clarify important open questions regarding the technology (heating system, water management) and the relationship between the baths and an adjacent house. The evaluation will integrate the basic research in the Stabian (and Republican) Baths with larger questions and examine the following aspects: the significance and perception of the baths in the urban landscape; the importance of the baths for the societal and political development of and the cultural influence on Pompeii; the combination of thoroughly investigated archaeological evidence with research on the history of mentality and culture regarding bathing; and the significance of baths for current theoretical discourses on the expansion of Rome and its consequences in the mid- and late Republican period. The holistic approach of the proposed project aims at providing reliable data for the long neglected investigation of changes in late Republican and early Imperial bathing culture; and at fruitfully employing theoretical models for interpretation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants