Room b (atrium)

Henrik Boman & Monika Nilsson

Room b is the atrium of the house. The layout is asymmetrical, with rooms on the northern side only (rooms c & d). From the atrium the surrounding rooms are accessible and through room e (tablinum) you reach the peristyle area. The atrium was of the Tuscan order, with an impluvium of tufa, dated to the mid 2nd century BC.

The floor is badly damaged and completely missing in large parts of the room. Only a few remains of a star patterned decoration, consisting of black and white tesserae, are preserved in the area under the now destroyed extension of a table by the entrance from fauces, and near the later installed basin. The red lustrous layer of the floor is fragmentarily preserved in the area by the basin and along the southern wall. The floor seems to have been repaired several times with cocciopesto as well as with lavapesta.

In connection with the installation of the two ovens in the rear of the house, a basin was constructed by the southern wall. The basin has an outlet directly onto the floor and, possibly, continuing further into the impluvium.

The conduit from the viridarium, connecting with the cistern in the peristyle, runs through the atrium and the impluvium.

The impluvium has a rough cocciopesto floor, which first was associated with the rebuilding of the house to a bakery. Investigations, however, showed that the floor was the first floor of the impluvium, leading to the conclusion that the impluvium was not an original feature of the house. Excavations in connection with the impluvium in 2006 confirmed this.

The excavations, carried out to a depth of c. 1.5 m below the impluvium level, showed that the area of the atrium had earlier been used for agricultural purposes. The plot presumably belonged to the neighbouring northern house V 1,13.

The red plaster of the last style noted by Mau is today completely destroyed.