If Data Could Walk
July 23 & 24

Session 4: Neighborhoods, Streets, & Shops
Taylor Lauritsen (CAU Kiel): Life at a Crossroads: Decoration and Design on the Via di Mercurio
In the years since it was excavated, Pompeii’s northwest quarter has been viewed as a rather old-fashioned neighbourhood that was home to the city’s most prominent inhabitants. The urban florescence of the 2nd c. BC was particularly influential for the architectural and decorative appearance of the area, especially along the Via di Mercurio, the broad thoroughfare around which the neighbourhood developed. At this time, the Mercurio was lined with grandiose houses of traditional Samnite design. But over the course of the next two centuries, the character of the street changed considerably, with bars, shops and workshops popping up along its route, especially near the junction with the Vicolo di Mercurio. After a brief survey of these developmental processes, this paper will consider the appearance of the streetscape in Pompeii’s final years from a first-person perspective. By examining the manner in which the Via di Mercurio’s evolution led to the production of new decorative forms, the paper will challenge conventional perceptions of both the street and neighbourhood.

Rhodora Vennarucci (University of Arkansas): You Touch It, You Buy It: Examining Multisensory Experience in a Pompeian Shop
Scholarship on Roman consumption practices remains focused on quantifiable, economic methods and the objects consumed, often in their end-use or discard contexts, as metrics for consumer behavior, largely overlooking the important point of purchase context within a shop environment when a buyer first decided to take ownership – or not – of a product. In pre-industrial societies, such as ancient Rome, a consumer’s sensorial appraisal of a shop and its goods was a critical factor influencing their decision-making processes. This presentation outlines Virtual Roman Retail (VRR) project’s sensory approach and use of digital technologies to reconstruct the sensescape of the Felt Shop of Verecundus (IX.7.5-7) at Pompeii in order to better understand the effect of shop design on consumer experience.

Laura Nissin (University of Helsinki): A Smellwalk around The Block: Studying the Smellscape of a Pompeian Neighborhood
Smells are made up of volatilized chemical compounds and our ability to notice odors results from the number of molecules available to our olfactory receptors. However, smelling is not only a physiological phenomenon but also a cultural and historical one, and without understanding the ancient sensory landscapes our knowledge of the past remains inevitably limited. Measuring smells is a complex and uncertain process even in the modern world, albeit different olfactometric tools have been developed in recent times and commercial smell detection and odor control services are readily available when needed. In the research into the past, these methods are obviously not available, which raises the question of how does one study such fleeting experiences? Tracing the ephemeral sensory encounters from archaeological material is admittedly difficult. However, in recent Classical scholarship, different methods to investigate the past sensations have been developed, from the more traditional approaches that use either literary or archaeological evidence or these in combination to more experimental ones. The experimental methods include the phenomenological approach, which puts the researcher’s own bodily experience in the center of the investigation. Linked to this embodied approach is a technique called ‘smellwalking’, which emphasizes the movement in space while recording smells encountered during the walk.1 I this paper I explore the possibilities to study the olfactory nuisances in one Pompeian city block (IX,3) and its immediate neighbors. I examine the city stinks in the area, by tracing and mapping the sources of smells one could encounter walking around the block. The focus is on such stenches that have been considered in previous scholarship rendering ancient towns foul-smelling: ordure and other waste, industrial activities, as well as smoke. The analysis of evidence contests the views of malodorousness of Roman/Campanian urban space presented in previous studies and suggests that the smellscape of the urban Pompeian air was not constantly reeking, but milder and manageable, only occasionally interrupted by puffs of smells reaching the nose of passersby. I also argue that the inhabitants of Pompeii paid close attention to olfactory nuisances and attempted to regulate their sources. However, the analysis also reveals that social hierarchies and power relations played part in Pompeian odor control. The spatial arrangements were designed to shield the noses of elite inhabitants from the most offensive smells, but much less consideration was paid to the olfactory experiences of poorer classes and slaves.