How can the Pompeii World Heritage Site be permanently preserved from decay? Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the ICCROM will be investigating this question over the next ten years with the “Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project”.
The eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD buried Pompeii under masses of rock and lava and preserved it for centuries. Major excavations only began in the 18th century and uncovered the ancient city piece by piece. Each excavation brings new findings and is highly regarded by researchers and the public. In contrast, the conservation of the excavations and the long-term preservation of this unique site for posterity are neglected. Many finds have been taken to museums, but the uncovered walls and their extensive decorations in particular have not been adequately conserved and are increasingly falling into disrepair. From 2014, the scientists of the “Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project” want to dedicate themselves to a block of houses in Pompeii, a so-called insula, as a research object and conserve it completely, from the elaborate wall painting to the smallest preserved wall. “It starts with drainage and doesn’t stop with newly designed protective structures,” says Erwin Emmerling, Professor at the Chair of Restoration at the Technical University of Munich.
Preventive restoration is a new and important approach. “This does not yet exist in an appropriate form. We want to find out how continuous restoration actually works,” says Emmerling. Simple, classic materials such as lime will be used. Large tools such as cranes cannot be used in the narrow alleyways of Pompeii. The researchers plan to use nanotechnologies to increase the flowability of the lime and thus stabilize the frescoes by backfilling. The scientists want to preserve the top layer of paint on the paintings with lime and silicon compounds. In addition to restorers and archaeologists, numerous researchers from other disciplines will also be working on the “Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project”. This is because the ancient city is to be precisely surveyed and its condition recorded using aerial photographs. Seismic measurements will provide information about future stresses on the monument so that the preserved components can withstand these vibrations in the future. Civil engineers and structural engineers are also needed for this. There are also plans to re-vegetate suitable areas of Pompeii and the project as a whole will serve as a training center for conservators from all over the world.
The central project partners of the “Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project” are the Technical University of Munich with the Chair of Restoration, Art Technology and Conservation Science, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with the Fraunhofer IBP and the UNESCO-affiliated International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). These institutions are leading the project in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei and the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro, which is part of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, the Department of Ancient History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Rome, the University of Pisa and the Istituto per i Beni Archeologici e Monumentali of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) are supporting the project as research partners.