Herculaneum Ins. Or. II.9. Wine shop with rear room and dwelling on the upper floor.

Excavated 1936-37.

According to Guidobaldi, this was a wine shop, with rear room and dwelling on upper floor

See Guidobaldi, M.P, 2009: Ercolano, guida agli scavi. Naples, Electa Napoli, (p.49).

Wallace-Hadrill wrote that at number 9 was a wine-shop, a taberna vinaria, complete with a large stack of amphorae, a mezzanine with an amphora rack beneath it and address labels that identify the wine merchant as L.R. Antigonus: in the back room is a bed. (p.276).

On page 280, he wrote - as for the other shops, here too the excavation diaries show up Maiuri as less than meticulous. The wine amphora bearing the name of L.R. Antigonus was not found in the wine-merchant’s shop at number 9, but actually in the shop of the gemmarius at number 10, along with no less than four other amphora necks with the initials L.R.A.  On this showing, Antigonus is the name of the gemmarius, not the vinarius, and some loans had to be made from one space to another to kit it up as a convincing wine shop.

See Wallace-Hadrill, A. (2011). Herculaneum, Past and Future. London, Frances Lincoln Ltd., (p.280).

Maiuri wrote that this was a shop with a stove and a sink on one side and a lararium painting on the wall: Hercules pouring a libation between Dionysus and Mercury.

See Maiuri, Amedeo, (1977). Herculaneum. 7th English ed, of Guide books to the Museums Galleries and Monuments of Italy, No.53, (p.57).

Cooley and Cooley wrote that this was a bar belonging to M. Livius Alcimus.

See Cooley, A.E, & Cooley, M.G.L. (2014). Pompeii and Herculaneum, a sourcebook. Oxon, Routledge, (p.232, entitled H10 Wine from Cos at Herculaneum)

Ins. Orientalis II.9, the bar (or wine shop) on left, 8 in centre, 7 on right. September 2004. Looking north-east.

Regarding this area with its upper floors, Wallace-Hadrill wrote that usually the rooms on the first floor followed the same plan and layout as the ground floor;

generally, the first-floor rooms are associated with the shop rooms below them. The second floor is the least well preserved, though the robust construction of the Palaestra exedra seems to have kept the central section more intact. It is here that we can trace the layout of at least one flat, with several rooms around an open space. The entrance seems to have been from the wooden balcony that ran across the façade. By a bit of luck, Maiuri’s men in 1933 failed to complete their clearance of these rooms, and it was possible in 2006 to excavate the final layers of the latrine of the apartment, together with its downpipe dropping down to the sewer below. To reach the latrine from the flat, you had to go out on the balcony.

See Wallace-Hadrill, A. (2011). Herculaneum, Past and Future. London, Frances Lincoln Ltd., (p.275).

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. Entrance doorway.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. July 2015. Entrance doorway. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008. Entrance doorway. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008.

Detail of façade on south side of entrance doorway. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004. Entrance doorway, looking east. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.09, Herculaneum. January 2002.

Entrance doorway. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.09, Herculaneum. January 2002. Exterior façade on north side of doorway, looking east. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004. Façade on south side of doorway. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008. Front façade on south side of doorway. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008. Front façade between doorways of Ins.Or.II.9 and 8. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008.

Front façade between doorways of Ins.Or.II.9 and 8. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2008.

Detail of window on front façade between doorways of Ins.Or.II.9 and 8. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Entrance doorway threshold, looking west from interior. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006.

Doorway threshold, at south end. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Entrance doorway threshold at north end. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Looking down onto entrance doorway from upper floor.

The latrine (south-west corner) can be seen centre-left of photo. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Latrine in south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Detail of latrine in south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. Photo taken between October 2014 and November 2019.

Looking east across wine shop. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. October 2015.

Looking east across wine shop. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. March 2014. Looking east to details of carbonised wooden storage and remains of ladder. 

Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR

According to Deiss, “The amphorae of wine were laid lengthwise on a supporting wooden scaffold, cut to fit their shape.

They were reached by a ship’s ladder of wood, which now dangles in space, carbonised.”

“One amphora is marked with an inscription, quickly brushed in red: L. R. ANTIGONI”.

See Deiss, J.J. 1968. Herculaneum: a city returns to the sun. UK, The History Book Club, (p.106).

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Looking east across wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.09, Herculaneum. July 2001. Looking north-east across wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. Photo taken between October 2014 and November 2019.

Detail of supporting wooden scaffold. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. 1957. Detail of supporting wooden scaffold containing amphorae. Photo by Stanley A. Jashemski.

Source: The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License v.4. See Licence and use details.

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Note: in 1957, the carbonised wooden ladder was not on display.

According to Cooley and Cooley, an inscription was found on an amphora fragment in the bar belonging to M. Livius Alcimus, this bar at Ins. Or. II.9, along with other amphorae found labelled as his property.

The inscription translated as –

Excellent Coan vintage at Herculaneum of Livius Alcimus.     (CIL IV 10722)

See Cooley, A.E, & Cooley, M.G.L. (2014). Pompeii and Herculaneum, a sourcebook. Oxon, Routledge, (p.232, H10 Wine from Cos at Herculaneum)

According to Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (See www.manfredclauss.de) the inscription read

Ch<i=O>um

vet(us) exc(ellens)

Hercul(ani) [L]ivi Alci(mi)   [CIL IV 10722]

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. 7th August 1976. Looking towards south-east corner.

Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer, from Dr George Fay’s slides collection.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. October 2015. Looking towards south-east corner of wine shop. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004. Detail from south wall of wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004. Detail from south wall of wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. July 2001. Detail from south wall of wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. South wall of wine shop.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. October 2015. Looking towards south-west corner of wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. North wall of shop.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. North wall of shop, with niche and remains of the fresco.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. Niche in north wall.

According to Deiss – a niche stuccoed as a seashell, sheltered a statuette (now missing) of one of the gods.

Above and around the shrine was a fine fresco (now barely visible) of a robed Hercules pouring a libation between a nude Dionysus and a nude Mercury, who amongst other things, was the patron god of shop keepers. The fresco must have been the pride of the shop.

See Deiss, J.J. 1968. Herculaneum: a city returns to the sun. UK, The History Book Club, (p.104-6).

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum.1957. 

Niche on north wall with remains of fresco, as described by Deiss, above. Photo by Stanley A. Jashemski.

Source: The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License v.4. See Licence and use details.

J57f0453

An arched niche decorated with stucco, inside a shell and with side pillars.

Three gods stand side by side in the upper picture-zone:

Bacchus in the middle, clothed in a hip mantle, leaning on a pillar with his left elbow, the panther drinking on his right side;

On the left is Mercury in a short robe, with winged shoes and helmet (petasus), leaning on his left leg, and holding a vase with both hands;

Hercules on the right, probably naked except for the lion skin over his left arm, leaning on his right leg, lowering his right hand in sacrificial posture and carrying the club in his left arm.

See Fröhlich, T., 1991. Lararien und Fassadenbilder in den Vesuvstädten. Mainz: von Zabern, L120, Tav. 51,2.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004.

Detail from north wall of wine-shop. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2015. Looking towards doorway to rear room, in east wall.

Against the east wall of this rear room was found a carbonised wooden bed.

Ins. Or. II.09, Herculaneum. July 2001. Rear room, looking towards north-east corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.09, Herculaneum. 7th August 1976.

Looking north-east in rear room with remains of painted decoration, and carbonised wooden bed.

Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer, from Dr George Fay’s slides collection.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Detail from north wall of rear room. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Stucco decoration from top of north wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006. Detail from north-east corner of rear room. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. July 2001. Detail from south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006.

Looking down onto area of mezzanine level, from an upper floor. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. January 2002. Looking towards east end of upper floors. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. January 2002.

Upper floors in south-east corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. July 2001.

Upper floors in south-east corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004. Detail of window on second upper floor, south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004.

Detail of window on south wall of second upper floor. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Or. II.9, Herculaneum. December 2004.

Detail of window in upper south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2003.

Looking east towards upper floor above doorways 9 and 8. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins. Orientalis II.9, Herculaneum. September 2003.

Looking east towards upper floor above doorways 9 and 8. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.

Ins Or II.9, Herculaneum. May 2006.

Looking south-west from window/doorway on second upper floor. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.