Room e (ala)

Thomas Staub

This room forms the only ala of the house, opening up in its entire width towards the north east part of the atrium. Much of the walls are covered by either plaster or modern concrete, which at least partly makes it difficult to define the materials and techniques used. But on the north and east walls it seems as if much of the walls were constructed in opus africanum with a quite mixed rubble filling. Beside modern repeirs, the east wall also shows antiques repairs made with regularily placed small tuffa stone blocks, a technique that can be observed in several areas and walls in the house.
The now mostly lost wall paintings belong to the forth style. Some remains of colour and the reproduction in the cork model show that all three walls were decorated according to a uniform design. Above a black zoccle zone the middle zone was three-parted with red lateral fields and the central ones depicting an aedicula on white ground. The upper also showed filigree architectural elemts on a white ground. The red fields of the middle zone once more contained smaller vignettes depicting rural and animal scenes. The floor was made of coccio pesto with inserted coloured stones and two stripes of these stones as border marker towards the atrium.
The fine silver dinnerware and some other silver objects were found in this room. Wether they were placed here permantelly, maybe in a show case, or were taken here temporarilly can not be said with any certainity.