West Wall

Susanna Blåndman

The wall is built in opus mixtum, with two bands of opus testaceum extending along the full length of the wall, and opus incertum in the rest. In the upper part of the wall there are remains of a transverse wall. The wall contains an arch, a beam hole and a tunnellers' breach. Two features, a drain and what could be a small basin, abut on the wall. The drain runs into the corner of the north wall and the west wall meaning that the west wall lacks a foundation for the northernmost 0.80 m. The uppermost 5 - 6 courses of the opus incertum are reconstructed.

Opus testaceum
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 bands are in level with the bands in the east and north walls.

Opus incertum
The opus incertum consists of Sarno stones, lava stones and cruma. Some of the stones in the central part, between the bands of bricks, have a thin grey coating. Above the upper band of bricks and at a distance of 0.10 m from the north corner, there is a 2.70 m long horizontal recess in the wall. The recess is 0.05 m deep and 0.28 - 0.30 m high in the north part. At a distance of 1.00 m from the north corner and to the end of the recess the height is approximately 0.10 m.It is partly filled with debris from the eruption and to the south the recess is partly filled with modern mortar. At the east wall there is a corresponding recess at the same level. The recess has most probably functioned as a support for a beam. There is still debris from the eruption at the height of 4.15 m in the north corner, a 0.70 m high patch. At several places there is a thin layer of ash on the wall.

Arch
In the lower north part of the wall there is an arch, 1.80 m wide. The entire arch is built of
trapezoidal bricks. The bricks are approximately 0.30 m long and 0.02 - 0.07 m thick, the central brick is 0.35 m long and 0.04 - 0.06 m thick. The top of the arch is located at the height of 1.05 m.The entire arch is not visible since part of it seems to disappear behind the north wall. The purpose of the arch is to relieve the pressure from the wall in the corner since the corner lacks a foundation due to the drain located there.

Beam hole
A large beam hole is located at a distance of 2.80 m from the north corner, at the height of 2.42 m. It is 0.35 m high, 0.39 m wide and 0.32 m deep.It has debris from the eruption in the innermost part. There are also scarce remains of imprints of a beam in the mortar in the bottom and in the upper north corner. In the lower north corner there is an extension of the hole, measuring0.18 x 0.06 m. This extension is most probably modern, plausibly due to a modern, but now lost, door lintel stretching to the east wall in room 5.

Above the beam hole there are clear signs of a transverse wall that existed only on the upper floor. The remains of the transverse wall are 0.40 m wide and 1.75 m high.There are no signs of a transverse wall on the ground floor. The area is defined by stones on both sides that abut on the remains of the transverse wall. The area is partly covered by eruption debris which gives it a light greyish colour. There is also modern mortar in this area, and the uppermost part is reconstructed. The opposite wall, the east wall, is reconstructed in the upper part and there are no remains left of a transverse wall. On the other side of the wall, in V 1,1.32 the transverse wall between rooms 2 and 6 is located at the exactly same place.

Tunnellers' breaches
A tunnellers' breach, leading to room 6, V 1,1.32, is located at a distance of 1.95 m from the north corner and at the height of 0.45 m. It is mended with stones and mortar. It measures 0.55 x 0.47 m in V 1,2 and 0.75 x 1.20 m in V 1,1.32.

Details
There are only a few spolia in the wall. Near the lower southern part of the arch there are two fragments of terracotta.The mortar in the wall 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. There is a minor remain of hydraulic plaster in the north part of the wall. It measures 0.10 x 0.10 m and is located at the height of 0.60 m and at a distance of 2.50 m from the north corner.

There are three holes in the wall. Two holes are placed at the same height, 1.55 m, and the first one is located at a distance of 1.05 m from the north corner and the other one at a distance of 2.57 m from the north corner. They measure 0.15 x 0.15 m, the first one being 0.20 m deep and the other one 0.26 m deep. Both contain a small amount of eruption debris. These two holes correspond in level to two holes in the east wall and one hole in the north wall. There is also a hole located 0.30 m from the north corner, at the height of 2.75 m and measuring 0.15 x 0.25 m. It could be from a scaffold since a beam extending from the north wall would have blocked the hole.