West Wall
Description
Susanna Blåndman
The wall is built in opus mixtum, with opus testaceum in the south and opus incertum in the rest. Two bands of opus testaceum are extending along the full length of the wall. The wall contains three breaches, two possibly made by tunnellers. Two supporting walls and three fulling stalls abut on the wall. The uppermost 5 - 6 courses of the opus incertum are reconstructed. The uppermost south part of the wall, from the height of 2.75 m and upwards, is a modern reconstruction built on top of the southwest wall.
Opus testaceum and opus incertum
The southernmost part of the wall, an approximately 1.00 m wide area from the bottom of the wall and up to the height of 2.70 m, is built in opus testaceum with four longer tongues, approximately 1.30 m long, stretching into the opus incertum to the north. At the height of 1.23 m and 2.50 m, two bands of opus testaceum are extending along the full length of the wall; with seven courses in the lower band and four courses in the upper. The lower band is 0.31 m thick and the upper 0.20 m. The bricks are 0.06 - 0.30 m long and 0.02 - 0.05 m thick, most of them are long.The opus incertum consists of Sarno stones, lava stones and cruma.
Breaches
Two possible breaches made by tunnellers are found in the wall. The largest breach is located at a distance of 3.60 m from the south corner and at the height of 0.10 m. It is 0.60 m wide and 1.65 m high and mended with modern and original bricks, stones and spolia such as fragments of plaster. At the bottom there are two larger blocks of Sarno stone. The breach leads to room 2, V 1,1.32 and it has wrongly been interpreted as a doorway on for example the plan made by Eschebach. There are no remains to confirm that there ever was a doorway in this wall.
There is also a breach at a distance of 0.10 m from the south corner and at the height of 0.94 m, also leading to room 2, V 1,1.32. It measures 0.52 x 0.35 m in V 1,2 and 1.23 x 0.44 m in V 1,1.32. It is mended with both modern and ancient bricks. I have interpreted it as an uncompleted breach made by tunnellers, but it could also be a natural collapse in the wall.
Located at a distance of 1.08 m from the south corner, at the height of 1.40 m, there is a reconstruction that most probably is not a tunnellers' breach. It measures 0.52 x 0.46 m and it is not visible on the other side of the wall.
The mortar is brownish and contains grains of lava. In the opus incertum a large amount of mortar covers the stones in some areas. In some parts the mortar is covered by a thin orange coating. A 1.36 m wide patch of hydraulic plaster, with a high content of crushed terracotta, still remains in situ above the south and central fulling stalls, at a distance of 2.20 m from the south corner. The patch is up to 0.53 m high. It consists of at least three layers and the outer layer contains the large amount of crushed terracotta which gives it a light red colour. The patch is to some extent supported with modern plaster. Above the upper band of bricks there is a badly worn patch of supporting plaster, approximately 0.15 - 0.40 m high and 3.58 m long.
A small-scale trench, dug close to the southwest corner, revealed a patch of wall plaster located beneath the floor level. The trench was 1.50 m long, 0.35 m wide and 0.57 m deep and dug in front of the wall at a distance of 0.55 m from the southwest corner. The patch is 1.20 m wide and up to 0.45 m high. It was not possible to describe the patch more closely since it was covered by a very thin layer of soil with constant humidity.
There are three holes in the wall. One hole, partly filled with eruption debris, is located at a distance of 2.70 m from the south corner and at the height of 1.55 m. It measures 0.15 x 0.11 m and is 0.23 m deep. Another hole is located at the distance of 3.32 m from the south corner and at the height of 2.70 m. It measures 0.14 x 0.18 m and it is 0.20 m deep. The third hole is found at a distance of 3.75 m from the south corner and at the height of 1.93 m. It measures 0.13 x 0.12 m and it is 0.09 m deep.
H: 5.00 m (N); 4.00 m (S). L: 4.16 m
