Pompeii’s Stabian Baths. Mechanical behavior assessment of selected masonry structures during the 1st century seismic events

ABSTRACT

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD buried and preserved the Stabian Baths building in the exact configuration which the archaeological excavations carried out in the second half of the 19th century recovered. By combining archeologists’ studies with the analysis of deformations and cracking pattern due to the 1st century seismic events, in this article numerical models have been formulated which allowed the formation of some hypotheses coherent on the timeline of the events, the damage to as well as the change of the shape and stylistic language of the thermal building. Specifically, through global seismic analyses and kinematic analyses of masonry portions of the “destrictarium” block, it is proven that during the 1st century not only a sole catastrophic earthquake occurred but, at least, two important seismic events took place.

The purpose of this article is to identify and parameterize the responsible earthquake by the analysis of seismic effects detectable in the damages and archaeological remains of the masonry walls of the Stabian Baths. The identification of the earthquake and the grading of provoked damages represent a useful knowledge tool that provides information about the vulnerability of ancient buildings and can be suitably used also to safeguard architectural heritage from seismic risk.

KEYWORDS:

• 1^st century Pompeii earthquake
• ancient damage analysis
• kinematic analysis
• masonry structures
• safeguard
• seismic vulnerability
• Stabian Baths

Acknowledgments

Professor Massimo Osanna, the Director General of the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, the authority for the preservation, conservation and public utilization of archaeological resource, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish to also thank Engineer Francesco Pugi, Engineer Sara Banchieri and Architect Giuseppe Basile, the team of Aedes Software (Pisa, Italy), for the technical support provided to carry out the numerical analyses with the software PCM.

Notes

¹ In Escheback’s opinion (Fiorelli 1862), this buttress can be dated back to the Borbone’s period (1854–1861). However, in his studies the German archaeologist does not highlight the two constructive phases. In the authors’ opinion, at least one of these could be dated back to the 1st century AD.