Back to menu | Back to clickable plan

Regio V - Insula II - Caseggiato V,II,2

After the 1938-1942 excavations this building presented itself as some kind of storage building. Most of it was open to the sky. Two doorways led to the street to the west. Over the south-western part was a light roof, supported by a few brick piers. In the eastern part a room was created with two tufa columns in the entrance. Perhaps this was an office.

Hans Boersma and Thea Heres established that the oldest masonry is Trajanic-Hadrianic (opus mixtum, latericium and reticulatum). An extensive rebuilding took place in the second half of the fourth century (opus vittatum).

Top. Plan of the building. Boersma 1985, fig. 25.
Bottom. Reconstruction drawing of the building, seen from the north-west. Boersma 1985, fig. 125.

The lower levels were investigated further in 1984 and 1985. It was established that the pavement of the final phase had disappeared. In the easternmost room, at a lower level, a mosaic of black hexagons on a white background was found, and in the room to the west a mosaic of black rectangles on a white background. The mosaics might be Flavian or Trajanic. Remains of thin dividing walls were identified, made of plaster and wood. In the easternmost room remains of painted plaster were found on the columns and on a dividing wall between a column and the north wall. The lower part is solid red, the upper part yellow. Vegetative motifs have been seen. The paintings show traces of a fire. Older layers were found below the mosaic, and to one of these (second half of the first century BC) belong the foundations of the tufa columns.

Many early structures and rooms were found to the west. Originally there were probably habitations, using a well with a marble well-head. In the Flavian or Trajanic period the building seems to have been given a commercial function. Much water was used, witness a large basin and drainage channels. In room 7 was a small latrine. In the Hadrianic period these remains were covered, after a fire it seems. Final major interventions then took place in late antiquity.

Plan of the 1984-1985 excavations. Petriaggi 1987, fig. 2.


Photos



The building seen from the east, after the 1984-1985 excavations.
Photo: Petriaggi 1987, fig. 8.



The building seen from the east, after the 1984-1985 excavations.
Photo: Petriaggi 1994, p. 261.



The building seen from the north-west, after the 1984-1985 excavations. Below the cover is a floor of opus sectile.
Photo: Petriaggi 1987, fig. 11.



The building seen from the west. Photo: Klaus Heese.


Room 1, the easternmost room, seen from the south-west. Photo: Klaus Heese.


[jthb - 8-May-2022]