• Archaeologists digitally reconstructed Pompeii’s residential towers using 3D models based on structural and visual evidence.
• The towers, once thought simple, reveal upper-level luxury dining spaces with panoramic views of the city.
• Findings challenge long-held assumptions about ancient architecture and social life in Pompeii’s wealthiest homes.

The past three centuries of sporadic excavations at the grand houses of Pompeii have largely remained at eye level. And for good reason. There’s much to explore, and the colonnaded gardens, mosaicked bathhouses, and frescoed dining rooms paint an unrivaled snapshot of how wealthy Romans lived in the 1st century C.E.

But citizens of Pompeii not invited into these rarified interiors would still have recognized the power of their occupants: the grand houses were topped with towers that dominated the city’s skyline. Reconstructing this higher plane of the city is a focus of Pompeii Reset, a project led by Berlin’s Humboldt University whose archaeologists are looking to the clues of halted staircases, wall markings, and beam holes to imagine what the upper floors might have looked like.

To do so, researchers are capturing what does exist using laser scanners and detailed photography to create 3D models and extending these digital twins upwards with “approximation and plausibility.”

A 3D model of the House of Thiasus, in Pompeii. Photo: courtesy Pompeii Reset.

Until now, conventional wisdom has suggested these upper floors were simple spaces and generally used as cheap rentals or quarters for slaves. The latest findings, which were published in Pompeii’s online journal in October, corrects the record, suggesting that high-level rooms existed alongside more modest ones.

The main target for Pompeii Reset has been the House of Thiasus, a lavish home that was likely owned by a prominent politician. The house takes its name from thiasus, a Greek term referring to religious processions associated with the god Dionysus, owning to its extensive frescoes depicting bacchantes, female followers of the god of hedonism. In addition to containing some of the finest painting in Pompeii, the House of Thiasus also boasted a 40-foot tower. Researchers say it introduced a luxury element that was typical of country or suburban villas into an urban context.

Model of the two-story tower in Pompeii. Photo: courtesy Pompeii Reset.

Though it collapsed following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., archaeologists believe the tower was spread across two levels. Below, there was a service room in which banquets would have been prepared. Above, there was an upper dining room, which offered panoramic views of Pompeii.

“The interior of the lower part was simple in its furnishing,” the researchers wrote. “This is contrasted by the monumental external staircase that leads to the upper floor, suggesting a living space of a more elegant and representative character.”

Pompeii Reset also looked at other buildings in the area, known as Regio IX, including the House of the Second Cenaculum and the House of the Painters at Work, named for the 50 small ceramic pots containing pigments that were found at the site by archaeologists in the 1980s.

Digital reconstruction of a villa in Pompeii, showing a halted staircase and where the second story could be. Photo courtesy of Pompeii Archaeological Park.

“The upper floors of buildings are essential to understanding life in the ancient city,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. “By putting together data in the form of 3D models, we can develop hypothetical reconstructions that help us to understand the experience, space and society of the time.”

Earlier this year, the Pompeii Archaeological Park announced it had uncovered a new frieze at the House of Thiasus, it spanned three walls of a giant banquet room and drew from the ancient Greek play The Bacchae, written by Euripides in the 5th century B.C.E.