volume of the series on the Insula of the Menander

in Pompeii had its embryonic beginnings in a

catalogue which I prepared in 1989, as part of my

doctoral research but which was not included in that

thesis or its subsequent publication. This catalogue

involved extensive research in the archives of the

Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei. My principal

acknowledgement is therefore to the Soprintendenza

archeologica di Pompei—most notably to Professor

Baldasarre Conticello, Professor Pietro Giovanni

Guzzo, Dr Antonio d’Ambrosio, Dssa Grete Stefani,

and Dr Antonio Varone—for permission to carry out

a study of the artefacts from the Insula of the Menander,

held in the Pompeian collections. I am especially

grateful to Dssa Grete Stefani for her help with material

in the Boscoreale Museum and the Pompeian

photographic archive, to Dr Antonio d’Ambrosio for

his assistance in the storerooms, and to Dr Antonio

Varone for his general support and friendship. I am

also indebted to the archivist Sig. Luigi Matrone, and

the custodians of the storerooms, Sig. Franco Striano

and Sig. Ciro Sicigniano, for their assistance, humour,

and extreme patience. This study was initially carried

out while I was a British School at Rome Scholar.

Amanda Claridge was particularly helpful in the early

stages of the research with her knowledge of this

material. I wish to thank both Amanda Claridge and

the British School at Rome for their support.

Permission to study these artefactswas facilitated by

Professor Roger Ling, on behalf of the British Pompeii

Research Committee, who initially suggested that my

catalogue should form an appendix in Volume I of this

series. My presentation of a paper at the Fourth Conference

of Italian Archaeology, held at QueenMary and

WestWeld College, University of London (2–5 January

1990) resulted in encouragement from a number of

conference participants, particularly the late Dr Tim

Potter, Dr Thomas Rasmussen, and Dr Ellen Macnamara,

to produce a separate volume on these artefacts.

I am grateful to them for this support.

Consequently, Roger Ling and I put a proposal to

the British Pompeii Research Committee to include

another volume in the series. In 1993, the award of a

British Academy grant, supplemented with grants

from the Australian Academy of the Humanities,

the Society of Antiquaries, the Faculty of Classics,

Cambridge, and the Craven Committee, Oxford, provided

funds for me to carry out six months’ research

in Pompeii and Rome. I am indebted to the British

Academy, these other funding bodies, and the British

Pompeii Research Committee for their support.

These funds also paid for a draughtsperson to draw

the artefacts that had not previously been drawn

during my doctoral research. Subsequent funds

from the British Academy have contributed to further

drawing costs. Michele Varchetta did most of the

pencil drawings in 1993 and Sally Cann (British School

at Rome) completed the rest in 1998. From these

Susan Bird produced ink drawings in 2002 and 2003,

with some assistance from Mandy Mottram. I am

grateful to these draughtspeople for their contributions.

The patchy quality of the workmanship is not

their responsibility but a factor of shortage of funds

and a complex production process which has required

so many diVerent stages and hands. I am also grateful

to Joyce Agee who travelled from Australia to Pompeii

at her own expense to undertake the mammoth

task of photographing some 2,000 artefacts. I wish to

thank her for her professionalism, enthusiasm, companionship,

friendship, and patience.

A spinal injury in 1994 and my appointments as an

Australian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow and

a University of Sydney U2000 Research Fellow meant

that, for the next six years, my research was slowed

and all available time was taken up with other projects.

In 2000, with support from Roger Ling and

Joyce Reynolds, I was awarded an Australian Bicentennial

Fellowship to spend Wve months at Cambridge

to work on the manuscript. I wish to thank the

Menzies Centre for Australian Studies (King’s College

London) for this fellowship, the Faculty of Classics,

Cambridge, for appointing me as a visiting fellow and

Joyce Reynolds for her hospitality and support while

at Cambridge. My Australian Research Council Large

Grant awarded in 2001 provided the necessary