Current Research
For the past several years, the Via Consolare Project has undertaken archaeological research in the areas of Insula VII.6 and the the environs of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico. Our focus is the via Consolare, a major conduit of exchange, commerce, and traffic that runs from outside the Porta Ercolano directly towards the northwest corner of the Forum, cutting across the carefully planned orthogonal layout of the city and attesting to its early and continued importance throughout the life of the ancient site. A thorough understanding of the buildings and properties that developed along this avenue will allow the project to address a number of questions of vital importance to the study of the ancient city. These questions centre on the precise chronology and history of urban development both inside and outside of the city, the relative importance of proximity to the Forum and the layout of the early city itself, and the validity of preconceived notions of the difference between 'urban' and 'suburban' space in the ancient world.

Research Questions
We aim to document, interconnect, and interpret the detailed stratigraphic and chronological record of the properties along the entire length of the via Consolare, thereby providing answers to some of the longest held questions about the history and course of development of the ancient city of Pompeii, its early urban layout, and the changing character of its suburbs. By means of focused archaeological examination of buildings situated along this major roadway, it will be possible to trace the precise pattern and process of urban development from Pompeii’s socio-political core to its exterior, from the period of its earliest foundations until its destruction in AD 79. Furthermore, our approach will serve to combine the results of numerous other projects of archaeological research, permitting the extension of previously localised questions to a city-wide scale of analysis. Our results will therefore constitute a valuable insight into the factors controlling urban development in peninsular Italy during the primary period of Roman expansion and the early Empire.

Our questions are specifically:

• How has the precise course and destination of the via Consolare changed through time?
  
• As the city grew, did the nature, composition, and use of suburban areas change over time?
  
• To what extent does the gradient of urbanisation from the central forum area of the city outward to the city gates and beyond effect the function and character of the properties and neighbourhoods along the trajectory of the via Consolare?
  
• How valid is the generally-perceived difference between urban and suburban development in the city and surrounding environs of Pompeii?
  
• What can we learn of the urban expansion of Pompeii from the evidence presented by the standing masonry preserved along this trajectory?

Research Areas
Two areas of the city are particularly central to answering these questions: the city block known as Insula VII.6 and the area of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico. Insula VII.6 preserves the history of urban development at the southern termination of the via Consolare in close proximity to the Forum and its civic amenities. During the final phase of the city, this block was the most urbanised area in our study. At the beginning of the city's history however, the area may have resembled a suburban zone of a smaller archic urbanised core. The area of the Villa della Colonne a mosaico, situated just outside of the Porta Ercolano, presents an area that is outside the official city limits and remained suburban throughout the history of the ancient site. Comparisons between the two areas will therefore reveal the changing nature of suburban zones throughout the history of the city and the effects and manner of urbanisation over time. Furthermore, similarities between the two areas in their final phases call into question modern assumptions about the non-urban nature of suburban areas. In VII.6 there were two large houses, shops, civic buildings, bars and even possibly a brothel, whilst the area of the Villa della Colonne a mosaico comprised a villa, metalworking and pottery workshops, civic buildings, bars, and tombs. The Project seeks to discover when this situation comes into being and how it relates to the role of the via Consolare itself.

Methodology
In order to answer the questions posed above, it is necessary to reconstruct the precise building histories of our study areas and to obtain a comprehensive understanding and complete record of the sequential development of these areas as preserved by the standing remains. Precise stratigraphic relationships between each building phase must be identified through close examination of wall structure, positioning, fabric and mortar composition, colour, inclusions and building type. The documentation, coordination and interpretation of each piece of evidence allows for the understanding of each building and each area over time.

Our research methodology therefore involves a comprehensive program of non-intrusive techniques coordinated so as to examine, document and interrogate the standing remains of Insula VII.6 and the area of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico. These provide the information necessary to understand the relative sequence of buildings and permit the creation of preliminary reconstructions of building history and relational sequence. In addition, our methodology provides an assessment of the condition of subsurface stratigraphy and a realistic assessment of the potential value of archaeological excavation.

Specifically our methods are as follows:

• Digital mapping and 3-D topographic survey linked to a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) database
• Complete stratigraphic analysis of the standing remains including mortar by mortar comparison and visual analysis
• Rectified digital photography of all standing remains
• Preliminary sequencing of complete building history linked to stratigraphic analyses and construction histories as revealed via analysis
• Continued review and synthesis of previous scholarship and research within our study areas including secondary research in the Pompeii site library and Giornali degli Scavi di Pompeii
  

Our first step was to create a new, highly accurate, three-dimensional digital plan of the site areas, geo-referenced to data points recently placed by the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei and ultimately connected to a spatial relational database through Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. Numerous errors and inconsistencies in extant plans make it necessary to re-survey the areas under examination permitting detailed analysis of the existing remains, including measurement of features and relative elevations, accurate computer reconstructions and coordination of geophysical research, wall analysis and future excavation. The process of mapping of the site areas is conducted by teams using a Leica TPS805 (Power) Total Station to record the above surface remains and surrounding soil topography to a measurement accuracy of ±5mm and ±5 degree seconds.

The standing remains are recorded via rectified photography combined with a standardized system of annotation involving a quantification of the various types of construction materials, extent of surviving wall covering and decoration (including archival records or the documented existence of now-perished or destroyed decoration). To this is added an analysis of the particular stratigraphic sequence testified in each wall face. From these records a complete, measured phase plan for each standing wall fragment may be produced, allowing the thorough reconstruction of the structures at each phase of the building's history, and the complete documentation of the development of each research area. High-resolution, accurately rectified and scaled digital images of each standing wall provide a comprehensive photo archive of the material composition, construction events, building methods and decoration preserved in every face of each wall within our research areas. Our work will present a synthesis of each of these with the phases clearly highlighted. Our research will therefore constitute a primary archive for these walls and present a useful tool for all future researchers.

Furthermore, photographic sections combined with architectural elevations will be produced, presenting a virtual view through each building, and will complement current photographic sections being carried out on the via dell’Abbondanza by Jennifer and Arthur Stevens Via dell'Abbondanza Project and to those soon to be presented in the publication of the University of Bradford’s excavations in the Casa del Chirurgo (Jones, Robinson, Anderson, Edwards, in preparation). The most exciting use of this method will be the production of the ‘slice’ through Pompeii, running from the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico to the forum, which will incorporate the findings of all other research projects that have worked on other parts of this thoroughfare.