West Wall
Description
Susanna Blåndman
The west wall is an inner wall between room 4 and 5. The wall is built in opus mixtum with opus incertum and two bands of opus testaceum. There are also two parts of the wall that are built in opus vittatum mixtum. A doorway is located in the upper part of the wall. A 0.60 m wide area in the south corner, from the height of approximately 2.00 m and upwards, is a modern reconstruction made by reused ancient building material. The uppermost part of the opus incertum is also reconstructed. Remains of a lime-concrete floor continue beneath the wall in the south part where also a structure from an earlier building phase was found. Scant remains of a cocciopesto floor abut the wall in a few places.
Opus vittatum mixtum in the south corner
The southern part of the wall, a 0.29 - 0.47 m wide area starting at the height of 0.11 m, is built in opus vittatum mixtum with a few longer tongues, 0.55 - 0.62 m long, stretching into the opus incertum to the north. The opus vittatum mixtum is made of two courses of bricks alternating with one course of stones of tufa blocks. Each section of bricks (0.06 - 0.09 m thick) corresponds quite well in height to each course of tufa blocks (0.07 - 0.09 m thick). The bricks are 0.05 - 0.38 m long and 0.02 - 0.04 m thick, most of them are long. The tufa blocks are 0.10 - 0.30 m long, most of them are long. Many bricks and tufa blocks in the upper part of the wall look greyish due to the fact that several of them are covered by a thin grey coating.
Opus vittatum mixtum in the upper north part of the wall and the doorway
The upper north part of the wall, at the height of 3.35 m and to the top, is also built in opus vittatum mixtum consisting of alternating shorter and longer courses of bricks and tufa blocks. The longer courses are approximately 0.90 m long and the shorter ones approximately 0.60 m long. It was not possible to measure the height and the length of bricks and the tufa blocks due to the height of the wall. The two lowermost courses are broken in the south part.The uppermost courses seem to be a modern reconstruction. The opus vittatum mixtum forms a straight line towards the central part of the wall, which confirms that it is the north door jamb of a doorway. Due to the reconstructed south part of the wall there are no remains of the south door jamb.
Opus testaceum and opus incertum
Two bands of opus testaceum are extending along the full length of the wall from the south corner to the north corner. The lower band is located at the height of 1.29 m and consists of seven courses of bricks. The upper band is located at the height of 2.58 m and consists of four courses to the north and seven in the reconstructed part to the south. The lower band is 0.29 m thick. The upper band is 0.20 m thick to the north. The bricks are 0.02 - 0.05 m thick and 0.09 - 0.38 m long, most of them are long. Some of the bricks in the lower band and almost all in the upper band have a thin grey coating on the surface. At the height of 3.12 m there is a 1.50 m long course of bricks in the north part of the wall. This course is at the same level as the upper level of the beam holes in the north wall. The remaining part of the wall is built in opus incertum, consisting of cruma, lava stones, Sarno stones, one sand stone and two blocks of tufa. A great amount of mortar covers the stones in some areas, especially in the north part and a thin grey coating covers parts of the wall, especially in the south part. To the south the lowermost course of stones is missing in a 0.48 m wide area where the floor surface continues 0.08 m under the wall.
There are two spolia in the opus incertum; two small fragments of terracotta in the lower south part. The mortar is almost the same in the entire wall; brownish and containing grains of lava. There is however an area with greyish mortar containing grains of lava from the height of 2.78 m and up to 3.23 m in the north part of the wall.
In the upper north corner, from the height of 3.35 m, there is a 1.45 m high and 0.05 - 0.50 m wide patch of fine wall plaster. The plaster is badly worn and there are no traces of decorations. It is however possible to see minor traces of a yellow finishing in the lower north part. The patch is partly supported by modern plaster. The uppermost third of the patch is modern, except for in the corner where a 1.15 m high patch of eruption debris is attached to the plaster at the height of 4.35 m.
There are three holes in the wall. One hole is located at the height of 1.58 m and at a distance of 2.40 m from the south corner. It measures 0.16 x 0.21 m on the outside and 0.12 x 0.12 m on the inside and it is 0.14 m deep. Another hole, that penetrates the wall and measures 0.15 x 0.20 m, is located at the height of 2.80 m and at a distance of 2.35 m from the south corner. Stones and mortar are missing around it. The hole is smaller on the other side of the wall. This hole is at the same level as the beam holes on the north wall and a hole in the east wall. It could be a hole from a scaffold since the beam would have blocked it. The third hole is probably modern. It is located at the height of 2.08 m and at a distance of 0.02 m from the north corner. This circular hole measures 0.025 x 0.025 m and it is 0.05 m deep.
H: 4.80 m (N); 3.30 m (S). L: 2.85 m
