POMPEII

The lengths of all of the insulae were hand measured with a 50-meter tape in 2008.  The objective was to identify any significant discrepancies and investigate the accuracy of the survey data and background drawings.  The differences between the lengths taken from the control background elevation drawings and those obtained by hand measurement were calculated to be between 0 and 6 cm over city block lengths that varied between 32 and 147 meters.  All disparities were less than 0.12% of the length of the individual blocks.

The end corners of most of the buildings on via dell’Abbondanza are uneven or jagged, and some are completely missing. Overall insula dimensions are affected by the location at which measurements are taken on the corners.  Consequently, it was not possible to determine if the survey control drawings were more or less accurate than the hand measurements.  However, variations in the range of 0.1% or less seemed reasonable, and the drawings were deemed to be satisfactory for the intended purpose.