HGE04 Pompeii. Herculaneum Gate East Side. Unnamed tomb.

Excavated November 1806 and 1933-5. (Eschebach East 4, Kockel Nord 4).

According to Kockel, North 4 is not mentioned in the excavation reports. F. Mazois first entered it on his plan from 1812.

In part, however, it must have been known as early as the 18th century, since it was still east of the old road to Boscoreale, which at that time formed the western boundary of the excavations.

The southern half was completely excavated in November 1806 when excavations advanced to North 6, the garland grave.

At that time or soon after, the boundary wall of the excavation site was built, which still overlaps the grave in a west-east direction.

In 1933/35, A, Maiuri excavated the entire area between the city wall and the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico, completely exposing North 4 as well.

To the north of the base, he found a cone and a Corinthian capital to match.

See Kockel V., 1983. Die Grabbauten vor dem Herkulaner Tor in Pompeji. Mainz: von Zabern, p. 122.

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Front half of tomb.

HGE04 Pompeii, on right. 8th August 1976. Looking north along east side of Via dei Sepolcri.

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

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Front half of tomb.

In the original excavation of this tomb only the front along the Via delle Tombe and part of the central core had been revealed: the rest, towards the east side, buried under the eruptive material of 70, was still unexplored. A modern enclosure wall to defend the monumental area, passing above the ancient building, marked the limit of the excavation.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943 (p.300-304, excavation between 1933-35).

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Front half of tomb, looking north west, showing wall that cuts across the tomb.

HGE04 Pompeii. 1933-35. Plan of base of tomb showing wall that cuts across the tomb.

What remains of the ancient sepulchre is a large square base of 9.30m by 9.30m, the largest of all the funeral buildings on the Via delle Tombe.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943 (p.300, fig. 16).

HGE04 Pompeii. 1943. Reconstruction cross section drawing by L. Oliva.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943 (p.308, fig. 24).

HGE04 Pompeii. 1943. Reconstruction drawing of exterior by L. Oliva.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943 (p.308, fig. 25).

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Two altars standing outside HGE05. According to Kockel these may possibly have been from the corners of HGE04.

See Kockel V., 1983. Die Grabbauten vor dem Herkulaner Tor in Pompeji. Mainz: von Zabern. (p. 121-2).

HGE04 Pompeii. 1933-5. View of rear of tomb during excavations showing also the cone and capital found by Maiuri.

According to Kockel in 1933/35, A. Maiuri excavated the entire area between the city wall and the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico, completely exposing North 4 as well.

To the north of the base, he found a cone and a Corinthian capital to match.

See Kockel V., 1983. Die Grabbauten vor dem Herkulaner Tor in Pompeji. Mainz: von Zabern, p. 122.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943, p. 301, fig. 17.

HGE04 Pompeii. 1943 drawing by L. Oliva of the cone and capital found by Maiuri who suggests they would have been joined on a wooden axis.

According to Maiuri adding a terminal element to the acanthus shaped capital, as represented in this drawing, would form a conical acroterion with acanthus motives.

This acroterion, due to the very place of the discovery, could only belong to the monumental tomb no. 4, and would have constituted its terminal element.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943, p. 303-4, fig. 18.

HGE04 Pompeii. 1933-5. Fragment of a large painting found in the same area as the decorative architecture of Tomb. No.4.

According to Maiuri –

“Together with the tufa blocks of the architectural decoration of tomb No.4, a large slab of limestone was found in the same layer of deposit on which, from one of the faces, one could see still preserved, but in a state of extreme decay and with a serious alteration of colour, the fragment of a grandiose pictorial composition that by technique and style was not related to any of the genres of Pompeian painting."

(“Insieme con i blocchi in tufo della decorazione architettonica della tomba n.4, si rinvenne, nello stesso strato di giacimento, un grande lastrone di calcare su cui, da una delle facce, vedevasi ancora conservato, ma in stato di estremo deperimento e di grave alterazione di colore, il frammento d’una grandiosa composizione pittorica che per tecnica e stile non si ricollega a nessuno dei generi della pittura pompeiana.”)

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943, p.310-314, fig.26, 1933-5 excavation.

HGE04 Pompeii. Drawing of a fragment of a large painting found in the same area as the decorative architecture of Tomb. No.4.

According to Maiuri, this appears to be a musical scene with three female figures and a fourth from a missing adjacent slab of which only the hand remains.

The main figure is a young woman seated left listening intently as the hand of a [missing] fourth person plays the zither.

At the rear on the left is an older female figure with a stern expression. On the right is a younger woman perhaps a maid of the seated lady.

The technique and style take us outside the wall painting, as we know so far in Campania and Rome. In this painting in which for the first time we find used in Pompeii the technique of funerary Campania associated with a limestone structure, we must recognize a painting from the Hellenistic age of the first half of the second century BC. outside what we usually consider the development of the common Pompeian wall painting.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1943, p. 310-314, fig. 27, (1933-5 excavations).

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Rear half of tomb behind wall and to west of Tomb HGE02.

HGE04 Pompeii. May 2006. Looking west from tomb of T. Terentius Felix Maior.

HGE04 Pompeii. December 2006. Rear half of tomb seen from the path leading to the walls at Pompeii.

HGE04 Pompeii. December 2006. Rear half of tomb with part of wall of HGE07A to right.