In 2004 and 2005, as part of the study of Insula 5 in Regio V, two excavation campaigns were carried out with the aim of checking the results of Amadeo Maiuri’s 1947 excavations in House V 5, 3 and to clarify the development phases of the entire Insula from the archaic period until the construction of the late Republican domus. At the same time an analysis was made of the vertical stratigraphy present in the Insula and the decorative schemes were photographed. The majority had never been recorded and today are in a badly degraded state. A digital survey was also made of the parts of the Insula that were exposed. All the information will be fed into a database which will contain all the data produced by the excavations and finds study.

Between 2006 and 2007 the excavation was interrupted because the structures and decorations of the entire insula were restored by the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii.

In 2008 with the restoration completed, new excavations were carried out in the garden. This campaign was undertaken in collaboration with Prof. Mark Robinson of Oxford University. Its aims were: 1) acquisition of new data regarding the development of Insula V 5 from the archaic to late Republican period and checking of Maiuri’s trenches in the garden area; 2) excavation of the garden areas not examined by Maiuri in order to reconstruct the planting in the garden at the time of the eruption in 79 A.D.; 3) deepen the excavation below the archaic ground level in order to clarify the stratigraphy of the area in the prehistoric period. All three objectives were reached, although it was necessary to reopen the trenches to complete the excavation in 2009 (see below).