Re-discovery

Exploratory excavations were carried out in several places around Boscoreale at the end of the 19th century by private individuals, usually the landowners. ..

,, These less than scientific excavations continued well into the 20th century, producing many artifacts that were subsequently carted off to collections around the world.

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.. The farmsteads were part of a dense network of smallholdings situated on the lower slopes of the volcano and on the adjacent plain of Sarno. They were generally family-run or employed a few slaves. Whilst frescoes, mosaics, and other 'treasure trove' were the goal of the excavators, the less glamourous finds, including farm buildings and implements are no less important historically. The excavations provide a clear picture of the various stages in the main agricultural activities of the region, above all wine growing (some of which was exported) and olive oil production, which mainly catered for local demand.

In this way about 30 villae rusticae have been re-discovered, although this can only be a fraction the large number of farmsteads that once populated the area. ..

Villa Regina

.. The courtyard was an area for storing wine. It contained 18 large half-buried dolia (pictured below) to store the wine. ..

This rustic villa consists of various rooms round three sides of an open courtyard. The villa was built in the 1st century BC and was enlarged during both the Augustan and Julio-Claudian eras. .. The villas rooms included a kitchen with brick oven (the kitchen was not in use at the time of the eruption); a storeroom and temporary kitchen where most of the implements of the villa were found; a torcularium with its wooden wine press and crushing tanks and lastly a triclinium, decorated with frescoes in third and fourth style. There was also a barn for storing hay and cereals.

Villa Pisanella

This villa was excavated between 1895 and 1899 and is now re-buried. It is basically split into two parts, the familly's living quarters decorated with frescoes in the third style and a working area made up of a bakery, a stable, presses for wine and oil and dormitories for the slaves. The owner was perhaps Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, a banker from nearby Pompeii. In 1895 a 109-piece silver collection was discovered, consisting of a full table setting as well as a few special display pieces. The silver had been hidden in a vat in the villa's wine press room (it can now be seen in the Louvre, Paris, having been donated by Count Edmond de Rothschild).

.. The cup pictured above displays some dark humour, as skeletons labelled with the names of noted philosophers act out scenes from life. The inscription reads 'Enjoy life while you have it, for tomorrow is uncertain'. .. The hand mirror pictured left which shows Leda and the swan in silver with repoussé decoration can also be seen in the Louvre in Paris.

Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor

.. A second room off the peristyle, opposite the entrance, is an oecus whose portal is flanked by winged figures. ..

The Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor was excavated in 1900 and derives its name from an inscription found on a metal vase in the building. However, a second inscription, this time of one L. Herennius Florus, found on a seal, could equally testify to the owner's name. .. The villa was decorated by beautiful frescoes in Pompeian second style, similar to the ones in the Villa of the Mysteries and dating back to about 40-30 BC. On the north side of the peristyle are a series of rooms, the first of which is a cubiculum with frescoes of city views and architectural themes. .. .. Here, in the middle of the wall, there were paintings of Venus with Amore, on the left Dionysus and Arian and on the right the Three Graces. The best of the frescoes have now been removed from the building and can now only be seen in assorted museums dotted about Europe and America. .. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses many of the paintings including the fresco on the right of a glass bowl of fruit.

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These paintings themselves depict further rooms, columns, landscape, and garden scenes, all emphasizing expansion and grandeur. Next to the villa were the farm buildings including a press and a mill for olives.

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