Floor
Description
Henrik Boman & Monika Nilsson
The floor in the atrium is heavily dilapidated by roots and the cover of lava gravel.
Mau described the atrium as decorated with an opus signinum floor, predominantly with lava, and with a star-shaped pattern of black and white tesserae and an ornament of white stones around the impluvium.
We found traces of lavapesta with a star pattern, as described by Mau, though with a different pattern than in ala d. A star pattern of black and white tesserrae (with an interval of 0.3m between the stars) is preserved in the area under the now destroyed extension of the table and close to the later installed basin.
Along the south wall, traces of the floor were still in situ: A red glaced layer had been applied on the floor by the basin and the south wall, and there were a few traces of the star pattern under one of the short walls of the basin.
The floor around the impluvium was completely destroyed, revealing the roughly cut edges of the impluvium. There are no traces of the white decoration around the impluvium described by Mau.
Traces of burnt material, presumably modern garbage from the cleaning of other areas, were visible in the atrium, in front of the ala and in the area north of the impluvium. By the impluvium the ashes were found at a lower level than the assumed floor level, indicating the state of the floor at the time the house was used as a dump. No lava gravel was present in these areas, which suggests that the time of the dumping can be dated to the pre-1980s.
The floor shows signs of being mended with both cocciopesto and lavapesta in thin layers. The floor layer is very thin (1-3cm) and there are no traces of bedding for the floor, hence the numerous repairs. Around the impluvium the floor is completely missing. The rough cuttings of the outer edge of the tufa stones of the impluvium are very close to the upper surface of the impluvium, indicating that the floor in this area cannot have been thick.
A conduit runs from the viridarium, through the tablinum into the impluvium, and then continues from the impluvium towards and through the fauces.
