North Wall
Description
Susanna Blåndman
The north wall is an inner wall between room 3 and 4, containing a doorway and window (for a description of the window - see the description of the south wall in room 4). The wall is built in opus mixtum with opus incertum and opus vittatum mixtum. A large part of the wall is reconstructed. A modern cast door lintel at the height of 2.10 m clearly shows that the area above is reconstructed, but there are also reconstructed parts below the door lintel. The brick section east of the window is mainly a reconstruction, approximately from the height of 1.35 m and upwards. The section between the window and the doorway, from the height of approximately 1.10 - 1.20 m and upwards, is also most probably modern. The westernmost part of the wall is also reconstructed to some extent, most probably from the height of 1.85 - 2.00 m and upwards.
Opus vittatum mixtum west of the doorway
The part of the wall west of the doorway is 0.50 m wide, 2.10 m high and built in opus vittatum mixtum from the height of 0.21 m and upwards, consisting of two courses of bricks alternating with one course of rectangular blocks of tufa. Each section of bricks (0.06 - 0.09 m thick) corresponds quite well in height to each course of tufa blocks (0.08 - 0.09 m thick).The bricks are 0.03 - 0.28 m long and 0.03 - 0.04 m thick. The tufa blocks are 0.09 - 0.028 m long and 0.06 - 0.09 m thick. At the height of 1.41 m there is a 0.29 m high area containing seven courses of bricks that correspond to the long band of bricks at the east wall of room 5. This part of the wall is built on a Sarno stone block of the same width as the wall. The west corner of the block abuts on the foundation of a lava stone that is placed in the filling material at the floor surface in room 5. In front of the wall there is yet another lava block placed in the filling material.
Opus vittatum mixtum east of the doorway
The part of the wall east of the doorway is 1.45 m wide and 2.05 m high and contains the window that measures 1.07 x 0.58 m on this side of the wall. The area below the window is built in opus vittatum mixtum to the west and the courses are of varying length, from 0.31 m to 0.60 m. The opus vittatum mixtum is made of two courses of bricks alternating with one course of tufa blocks which are partly covered by modern mortar to the west. The bricks are 0.02 - 0.04 m thick and 0.05 - 0.25 m long. The tufa blocks are 0.10 - 0.30 m long and 0.07 - 0.08 m thick. At the height of 0.25 m there is a 0.45 m high patch of modern plaster at the corner of the doorway.
Opus incertum
The remaining part of the wall is built in opus incertum consisting of Sarno stones, lava stones and cruma. The upper east part is badly worn and several stones will fall any day. A thick layer of mortar covers the stones in the lower part.
Update: When the taberna was revisited in May 2015, several stones in this part of the wall had fallen.
The mortar in the opus incertum is greyish and tempered with lava; a large part of the area has been reinforced with modern mortar. The mortar in the opus vittatum mixtum west of the doorway is mostly brownish containing grains of lava and lime, but there are a few areas with modern mortar. There are scant remains of supporting plaster in the lower east corner and they partly abut on a porous lime concrete floor. The plaster is located from the height of 0.01 m and up to the height of 0.30 m. It is up to 0.45 m wide in the lower part. At the west part of the wall, below the opus vittatum mixtum, there is a small patch of supporting plaster, 0.05 m wide, between the wall and the lava stone located in front of the wall.
H: 3.30 m (E); 3.35 m (W). L: 3.37 m
