The House of the Surgeon is regarded as one of Pompeii’s oldest houses. Its construction is dated to the middle of the 3rd century BC, as indicated by the masonry technique and the large limestone blocks used in its façade.
The house retains a relatively simple layout, with the principal rooms arranged around the atrium, a tuff impluvium and a small viridarium at the rear.
Its modern name derives from the exceptional discovery of more than forty surgical instruments, including probes, scalpels and other medical implements. The find has prompted the suggestion that one of the occupants practised medicine, although it does not allow the precise use of the rooms to be reconstructed with certainty.
One room also yielded a rare painting interpreted as a depiction of a female painter’s studio, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
The House of the Surgeon also occupies an important place in the history of Pompeian excavation. Explored as early as 1770–1771, it was among the first houses brought to light under the Bourbons.
