RECENT WORK ON EARLY POMPEII
The earliest phases of the settlements in the centuries prior to the Roman conquestof Campania have not generally received a great deal of attention from scholars.1 But for some years now, thanks especially to the Soprintendenza Archeologica, numerous research projects have been contributing new material or new proposals and have reopened the debate on the history and, consequently, on the urban structure of the small Vesuvian center.2 The chronologies of the various phases of the urban fortifications and of the earliest and most important sanctuaries by now rest on solid foundations (cf. De Caro, Ch. 6);3 we have sufficient evidence to reconstruct the evolution of the building techniques used at Pompeii between the sixth and second centuries BC, which have never been so well documented. Although much of this research is still in progress and the picture we see today could change quickly, we have sought to reconsider, in the light of the new data, the entire archaeological documentation relative to the phases of the built-up area prior to the end of the second century BC.