More work in progress. I am writing an article about art consumption in Pompeii, and I have been cleaning up my database and writing scripts so that it draws my graphics precisely how I want them. I have now found a way to let php create .png image files from my Pompeii database. This is great because to my knowledge you cannot easily create charts like the ones in this image with mainstream office software – at least not with what has been installed on my computer. The lowest four charts show all buildings in Pompeii, starting with the smallest, and ending with the largest one. They have been ordered by number of rooms on the ground floor level, as I think this is a much more accurate way of ordering them than by surface size if you want to understand differences in wealth – e.g. because land prices differ more sharply within cities than construction costs, and because more rooms means that you have more possibilities for spatial variation. As you can see, some buildings have been highlighted, which means that they had, in 79CE at least, a certain number of rooms with opus vermiculatum mosaics (dating back to the second and first centuries BCE). The chart also gives an overview of where, in terms of size, are the houses with these forms of decoration. Unsurprisingly, they are very large. The large chart on top visualizes some of the data written next to the other charts – e.g. the percentage of buildings involved, and their relative size position. I have another set of graphic of the mythological pictures as well, but it is not yet ready for sharing. I am now going to work on what it all means. Which is the real fun, of course.
Miko Flohr, 10/04/2012