The House of the Lararium is one of the most important discoveries made during the recent excavations in Regio V. The complex, already partially known in the early twentieth century, was investigated again from 2018 as part of the work to stabilise the excavation fronts.
The house takes its name from the exceptional painted lararium found in a room used for domestic worship. At the centre of the wall is an aedicule containing the figures of the Lares, the household’s protective deities; below are two large agathodaemon serpents, symbols of prosperity and good fortune. Painted landscapes, plants, and birds extend around them, creating visual continuity with the small garden that once lay in front of the wall.
Another wall bears a hunting scene with several animals arranged around a wild boar. A stone altar was also found in the small green space, still preserving traces of offerings burnt during domestic rituals.
Investigations carried out from 2021 and during 2022 made it possible to explore other rooms in the house and reconstruct exceptionally tangible aspects of its occupants’ lives. Voids left in the ash by objects made from organic materials enabled casts to be made of wooden furniture, including a bed, a chest, small tables, shelves, and a cupboard.
The rooms contained ceramic and glass vessels, amphorae, bronze objects, a finely crafted polychrome incense burner, and an exceptional group of seven triptychs of wax tablets, originally tied together with a cord.
The contrast between the exceptionally rich decoration of the lararium and the greater simplicity of the domestic rooms has provided archaeologists with particularly valuable evidence for the living conditions of an intermediate social group in first-century AD Pompeii. Its members sought to display prestige through selected areas of their home, despite having more limited resources than the city’s great aristocratic families.
