How Did Pompeii Influence Roman Architecture

The use of concrete in Roman architecture was pivotal in the construction of many magnificent buildings that represent the roman era.

The Roman city of Pompeii was discovered in the late 1590s, but excavation did not begin until 1738. Pompeii has been used ever since as an example of Roman culture, however because of the city’s destruction and history, horrible initial excavations and modern humanity’s stupidity, Pompeii cannot be considered a prime example for understanding the Roman World.

Pompeii was founded by the Oscans in 7 century B.C. at the southeastern base of Mt. Vesuvius. In 80 BC, Pompeii was established as a Roman colony. The citizens of Pompeii consisted of Oscans, Samnitics and Greek people, these different cultures colliding

They were more focused on finding antiques and treasures than sifting through the layers of the city and archiving everything they found. Because of the easier access to the ancient city, hundreds of treasure hunters flocked to Pompeii to try and dig up precious artifacts. Once people began digging up the city of Pompeii there wasn’t a system of categorizing items found or a way to preserve the city that was excavated. This led to the degradation of frescos, walls, ceramics and other items within the city of Pompeii. The city wasn’t well guarded either, leading to looters destroying and taking precious artifacts that could lead to the understanding of the way of life for the citizens of Pompeii. It wasn’t until a hundred years after the initial excavations of Pompeii that a structure was created in systematically excavating the city and categorizing the items uncovered. This was a massive systematic excavation which led to the uncovering of huge portions of the city, however the people that dug up the layers covering the city did nothing to help preserve the remnants of Pompeii. This led to the erosion and ruin of important structures of the city. The degradation and undocumented looting of Pompeii has created many gaps for archeologists trying to understand the way of life for the citizens of Pompeii. From the limited archeological discoveries, archeologists form blanket generalizations that cannot account for the entirety of the Roman World. Every human has a different way of living, especially when they have different cultures and live in different climate regions; citizens of Pompeii cannot be an accurate representation of the rest of the Roman World because of many missing and undocumented artifacts that show the way of life and also because not all roman citizens behaved and ornamented their lives the exact same