SOON AFTER BECOMING THE DIRECTOR OF EXCAVATIONS AT POMPEII, Vittorio Spinazzola embarked on an ambitious project – the disinterment of nearly a half-kilometer of the Via dell'Abbondanza. Much of this beautifully monumentalized avenue had long been exposed, from the Stabian Baths to the forum. Where its western end joined the forum, the colonnade encircling the civic heart was interrupted to receive this key artery, the widest in the city. The one city block that had already excavated east of the Via Stabiana boasted a towering house façade and tightly packed shops; it gave Spinazzola hope that the Via dell'Abbondanza remained prominent and busy as it ran eastward through a city gate.

The scavi nuovi, or “new excavations,” as they were called, show a distinctly revisionist mindset on Spinazzola's part. His posthumous publication spells out the excavation's goals – to investigate, preserve, and reconstruct façades and their decoration, inscriptions, windows, balconies, roofs, and the like; to link the scavi vecchi, “old excavations,” with the city's amphitheater; to excavate stratum-by-stratum, recording objects’ findspots and documenting discoveries with photographs; and to examine one tract of urban thoroughfare, rather than one house or city block (Fig. 2). Spinazzola did not intend to excavate much beyond building façades, but, for the first time, considered the street and its facing architecture an appropriate locus of investigation. He was confident that the street alone would reveal much about Roman life.

If Spinazzola hoped to unearth a vivid streetscape, his first trench did not disappoint. Within days of beginning digging, workers revealed the intersection of the Via dell'Abbondanza and the Vicolo di Pacquio Proculo that is this chapter's subject. Their first major find was a streetside fountain fronting a still-vibrant mural (Figs. 79, 80). As they continued east, they discovered a tavern blanketed with painted electoral endorsements. Over the following months, excavation progressed across from the tavern, and a large house emerged, its lofty façade topped by a balcony and its frontmost portions carpeted with mosaic. Pleased with these results, Spinazzola joined his trench with the scavi vecchi to the west (Figs. 79, 81). A sizable fullery surfaced on the street's south side, while shops with elaborate paintings of deities appeared on the north.