for the royal collections, Weber was unusual for his interest in the archaeological context of his discoveries. The Academia Herculanensis was founded in 1755 for the discussion and publication of the finds. The eight volumes of Le antichità di Ercolano esposte, published between 1757 and 1792, had a dramatic effect on contemporary taste in Europe and the United States.

The foul air in the tunnels may have hastened Weber’s death, and work was halted on the Villa of the Papyri in 1764 because of the fumes. Herculaneum was at that time beginning to be overshadowed by the finds at Pompeii and other sites buried by Vesuvius. Excavation has been rather fitful since that time, characterized by long breaks—for example, between 1780 and 1828 and 1876 and 1927.

Excavation in open trenches began in 1828 and was carried out on a large scale by Amadeo Maiuri between 1927 and 1958. The picture of Herculaneum that emerged was not of a prosperous commercial and industrial town like Pompeii but rather of a seaside resort. Public buildings were few and large, luxurious houses were restricted to the seafront. Dozens of skeletons (otherwise rare in Herculaneum) have recently been discovered on the ancient shoreline in front of the town, but generally excavation since the 1960s has been conducted on a modest scale. There is enthusiasm in some quarters for continuing the excavation of the Villa of the Papyri after a break of almost 250 years. The recovery of further papyri bearing ancient literature that otherwise has been completely lost is a very strong lure. The cost, however, would be enormous, and the project has been opposed by many who believe that state funds would be better spent on restoration and conservation. The excavation may proceed with private funding from the United States.

Ted Robinson

References

Grant, M. 1971. Cities of Vesuvius: Pompei and Herculaneum. New York: Macmillan.

Parslow, C.C. 1995. Rediscovering Antiquity: Karl Weber and the Excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hewett, Edgar Lee

(1865–1946)

A pivotal figure in U.S. archaeology in the early part of the twentieth century, Edgar Lee Hewett is best known for his political influence and dominating personality. Although largely ignored by recent historical syntheses, his influence on the character of archaeology in the American Southwest was far reaching.

Hewett was born in 1865 in Warren County, Illinois, and received a bachelor’s degree from Tarkio College in Missouri and a master’s degree in pedagogy from the Colorado State Normal School in 1898. His initial experience in archaeology was avocational, acquired while traveling by wagon through the Southwest on summer holidays in the 1890s. His appointment as first president of the New Mexico State Normal School in Las Vegas in 1898 provided an institutional base for fieldwork as well as for the establishment of relationships with a number of prominent important political figures in New Mexico Territory.

While serving in that position, Hewett established a reputation as an advocate for archaeological work, which until that time had largely been conducted by expeditions from eastern universities and museums. His attempts to establish local control over excavations in the region, such as those at chaco canyon, brought him into conflict with those institutions. On a national level, Hewett became allied with cultural nationalists and nontraditional scholars such as Charles Lummis and Alice Fletcher, heralding splits within the archaeological community along regional and class lines that became more evident following 1900.

Hewett’s early field research concentrated on the Pajarito Plateau of northern New Mexico, an area that had been explored earlier by Adolph Bandelier, and some of the important sites in the region were subsequently preserved by the creation of Bandelier National Monument in 1916. Small-scale soundings may have been conducted in the region as early as 1895, and in the subsequent twenty years, excavations were conducted at the major prehistoric pueblos of Puye, Tyounyi, Yapashi, Long House, Tsankawi, and several smaller sites.