One Pic to Find Them All: Re-assembling the Nine from Boscoreale

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples holds the remnants of a set of nine auloi, which were excavated from an exurban Pompeian villa in 1903. Unfortunately, the pipes have severely disintegrated during the 20th c., their original state being known from only one archival photograph taken soon after their discovery. In a joint research project at the MANN we have attempted to identify the surviving pipe fragments with parts of the instruments depicted in the photo, re-assembling them where possible. From our measurements as well as estimates of the dimensions of missing parts we try to assess their intended scales, and finally to compare the instruments with other known finds from the Roman Imperial period.