Room a (fauces)

Henrik Boman & Monika Nilsson

Room a is the fauces of a midsize atrium house. The entrance had cubic capitals above each side of the door opening, today only one remains. The threshold towards the street is slightly retracted, and had doors opening inwards. The opening to the atrium is slightly off centre northwards.

The floor in fauces is of cocciopesto, with a covered conduit running from the impluvium to the street. The conduit appears to have been cut into the floor, perhaps due to the late installation of the impluvium in the atrium.

Damage during WW II
This area was hard-stricken in an aerial bombing on 16 September 1943. Presumably, the outer walls of doorways 15 and 16 were very badly damaged (see pre-war photo in García y García 2006, fig. 92). The original cubic capitals over doorway 15 were reconstructed above doorway 16, signifying the extent of the damage (Boman & Nilsson 2006, 146; García y García 2006, fig. 92). Further damage was caused by the 1980 earthquake, as the photo of the S wall of V 1,14 in PPM shows.