The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters has published Insula Pompeiana IX 3: The Wall Paintings, Mosaics, and Upper Floors, edited by Ilkka Kuivalainen and Leena Pietilä-Castrén.

The volume presents the results of the Finnish excavations conducted in Pompeii within the framework of the Expeditio Pompeiana Universitatis Helsingiensis. Fieldwork was carried out in the Pompeian insula IX, 3 during two periods, from 2002 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2012. The former campaign was directed by Professor Paavo Castrén and the latter by Docent Antero Tammisto. Following the completion of the intensive fieldwork campaigns, the excavation diaries, drawings, photographs, and other documentation were assembled, organised, and analysed in Finland.

This volume constitutes the second major scholarly publication resulting from this long-term research project. It focuses on the wall paintings, floor mosaics, and upper floors of the House of Marcus Lucretius, and includes chemical analyses of the pigments carried out with particular care within the APUV project (Analytica Pompeiana Universitatis Vasconicae; University of the Basque Country). Together, these studies deepen our understanding of the decoration, construction, and use of the building, and bring archaeological documentation into dialogue with methods from the natural sciences.

Earlier results of the project were presented to a wider audience in the exhibition Domus Pompeiana – una casa a Pompei, held in Helsinki in 2008, and in the first substantial scholarly volume, published in Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum in 2019. The present publication continues this work and reflects the project’s long-standing ambition to document and analyse a single Pompeian city block in detail.

The publication is intended for scholars and students of archaeology, classical studies, art history, conservation, and related disciplines, as well as for readers with a broader interest in Pompeii and Roman cultural history.

The publication is available online and can also be purchased from the Tiedekirja Bookstore at Snellmaninkatu 13 in Helsinki.