North Wall

Henrik Boman

North wall
The wall is built in opus mixtum and incertum, with the two, for this building, standard brick bands extending over the wall. The incertum is of limestone, with few lava and cruma, especially in the mid zone.

One large breach made by tunnellers cuts both brick bands, and the modern repairs of the breach has not substituted the bricks but filled the cavity with opus incertum. The breach is found at a high location, c. 1 m above floor level (H: 2; W: 0.9 m).

As preserved today, is the opus mixtum brick structure higher in the north wall than in the façade to which it abuts. A piece of the incertum, above the level of the preserved brick façade, protrudes into the extension of the line of the lower brick construction in the north wall. The line of the NW corner seems to be slightly retracted in the higher area. The opus incertum filling this area is most likely modern.

The majority of the bricks uniform and long and the presence of spoils are very low (one tufa block and some dispersed tufa and tiles/bricks found). Some misfired bricks (with black core) found in the center of the wall.
The ancient mortar is of light yellowish character, with some large lime intrusions. In the mid zone of the wall, the mortar is smooth which presumably indicates that the ancient plaster protected the wall some (presumably considerable) time after the excavation.

The wall above the upper brick band is heavily restored in modern times.

Plaster: Preserved plaster is found in the lower section of the wall (c. 1.0 x 0.5 m), and in the NE corner, continuing to the E wall. Minor fragments are found in the lower NW corner. The plaster is of the same character as the other preserved plasters in the building.