What term is used to describe the areas or districts that divide the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum?

The term used to describe the areas or districts that divide the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum is "regio." In the context of these ancient Roman cities, each regio represents a specific administrative division that helps organize the urban layout and denote the various neighborhoods or functional areas within the cities. The concept of regio is vital to understanding the spatial arrangement and social structure of Pompeii and Herculaneum during the Roman period.

In contrast, insulae refers to the blocks or buildings of a city, particularly residential structures, rather than the administrative divisions of the site. Thermoluminescence and radiocarbon dating are scientific techniques used for dating archaeological finds and are not terms related to the organizational layout of these cities. Thus, regio properly encapsulates the way the sites were divided administratively and geographically.