Aediculae in the courtyard

In the garden of the Insula of the Paintings is a pseudo-aedicula (a niche on a podium), set against a wall that divides the garden in two halves. The shrine is facing the House of Jupiter and Ganymede. The excavators found a marble statue of Jupiter in situ in the niche. The deity is naked with a mantle hanging down from his left shoulder. The lower part of his right arm is missing, while in his (missing) left hand he held a sceptre. Next to his left foot is an eagle. It is quite remarkable that the statue survived the search for marbles to be thrown into lime-kilns, and the removal of pagan statues by Christians. Perhaps the shrine had somehow been hidden in antiquity.

The pseudo-aedicula during the excavation on November 10, 1919.
Photo: Archivio Fotografico Ostia, neg. B 389.

The niche is divided into an upper and a lower part by a stucco relief. In the upper part some small shells were inserted as decoration. There are furthermore small square imprints of presumably mosaic tesserae, but some of the imprints have red or yellow paint on the bottom. The lower part of the niche has plaster with a deep-purple background. On the upper left and right part a flying eagle has been painted, the head turned towards the centre of the niche. In the centre is a yellow-orange rectangle, directly below the stucco relief. Two green-blue garlands are hanging down vertically from the rectangle. To the lower end of each garland a yellow-orange object is attached, looking like a puppet without a head. Below each eagle is a green-blue garland, one end of which is attached to a light-purple nail, while the other end is attached to a smaller yellow-orange garland, hanging down from the stucco relief. To each green-blue garland yet another green-blue garland is attached, ending at the front of the niche. A little above the bottom of the niche are some yellow-orange lines. On top of this layer are the remains of a second layer, with remains of beige and orange paint on a white background. Below the rectangle a head can be seen with a "modius" on top (Jupiter-Serapis?).

Directly behind the front of the niche, to the left and right, is a console made of two small vertical bricks with one small horizontal brick on top. Below the left console is a vertical band (w. 0.03) where all paint has disappeared: it looks as if the lower part of the niche was closed off by some sort of door. On either side of the niche is an engaged column made of semicircular bricks. They are painted purple. Between the columns and the niche is a layer of plaster with red curved lines on a white background. Resting on the capitals was a tympanum that has largely disappeared. Between the niche and the tympanum are a red band on a white background and the remains of a stucco relief.

The pseudo-aediculae with the statue of Jupiter.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Detail of the left part with the place of attachment of some sort of door, an eagle, and garlands.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Detail of an eagle.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Detail of the central part with remains of a superimposed layer of plaster, a head with a "modius".
Note the light purple nail to the left and the two little "puppets" in the centre.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

A much damaged shrine has been preserved in the courtyard of Building III,I,8. The building was a workshop, witness a large oven, some basins and fragments of machines made of volcanic stone. In the centre of one of the short walls of the courtyard is the lower part of a semicircular niche with a protruding shelf, supported by a podium. Later a second podium was added. In the front of the second podium are two vertical bricks forming a recess. The lower part of these bricks is curved.

The courtyard of Building III,I,8.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The niche with a podium in the courtyard.
Photo: Eric Taylor.

Lateral view of the niche and the two podiums.
Drawing: Jan Theo Bakker.

In the courtyard, perhaps a garden, of the House of the Garden is a pseudo-aedicula that was built with extraordinary care: the thin bricks are separated by narrow layers of mortar. The back of the niche has an inlay of little terracotta tiles, identical to what we have seen in the warehouse of Epagathus and Epaphroditus, and in the House of the Lararium. On the bottom of the niche is a layer of mortar containing sherds and pieces of bricks, as if the niche was filled in.

The pseudo-aedicula in the House of the Garden.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

In a corner of the courtyard of the House of the Charioteers lies the upper part of a pseudo-aedicula. It must have toppled down from an upper floor. The monumental nature indicates that it comes from a central, communal area. It formed an entity with something, because the lower part of the outer back side and the back part of the outer left side reveal the core of the wall.

The upper part of a pseudo-aedicula in the courtyard of the House of the Charioteers, fallen from the first floor.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

In Building IV,II,5 a statue base with a dedication to Isis and the Genius Cenaculi, the Genius of the Apartment, was found. It was made by Claudius Pompeius Rusticus Diocles, miles frumentarius from the third Gallic legion. The frumentarii were Imperial messengers, but could also be active as some sort of project managers. As such they were involved with the reorganisation of the Square of the Corporations at the end of the second century. The fairly monumental nature of this piece of evidence suggests that it does not come from an individual apartment, but from a fairly large shrine, probably in a central room or central area of an apartment building.

ISIDI ET GENIO CE NAC(u)LI EX VOTO CLAVDIVS POM PEIVS RVSTICVS DIOCLES MIL(es) FR(umentarius) LEG(ionis) III GAL(licae) LIBENS REDDIDIT

The letters were coloured red. EDCS-24300039.