The House of the Ancient Hunt first acquired its monumental form in the 2nd century BC. Its front section retains the typical layout of a Pompeian house, with the entrance, atrium and tablinum aligned on the same axis.
The shape of the plot, however, dictated the arrangement of the rear of the residence. Instead of the customary regular plan with porticoes on four sides, the peristyle consists of only two colonnades meeting at a very acute angle.
In the final years before the eruption, the rooms were redecorated in the Fourth Pompeian Style. Among the most important surviving paintings are mythological scenes of Apollo and a Nymph and Diana and Actaeon. According to the myth, Actaeon was transformed into a stag and attacked by his own hounds after seeing the goddess bathing.
The house nevertheless takes its modern name from the large hunting scene painted in the peristyle, in which wild animals appear in a landscape. Long exposed to the weather, the painting is now badly faded.
The domus’s decoration continues to be studied and restored by the Archaeological Park. Research has identified at least two major building phases between the 2nd century BC and AD 79.
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Further reading
La Casa della Caccia Antica (VII 4,48): nuove ricerche interdisciplinari e studi sulla colonizzazione lichenica – A 2024 research report combining archaeological investigation, scientific diagnostics and the study of lichen growth to inform conservation.
La Casa della Caccia Antica: studio, documentazione e interventi conservativi – The Archaeological Park describes the research and training programme and conservation work on the house’s wall paintings and mosaics.