Cess pit

A. Karivieri & R. Forsell

The pozzo:
In the southeast corner of the room there was no floor. Instead there were many stones and tile fragments. The soil was light and soft. There were also many pieces of charcoal. Deeper down six amphorae were found placed against and on each other. Around them there were many pieces of petrified ash. Some amphora fragments were embedded in the petrified ash. The first amphora was found upside down as if fallen. It is possible that it had fallen down during the eruption, thus showing the existence of amphorae in this locality in AD 79. Residue of its content was found on the inside. Samples of this are being analysed in the Archaeological Research Laboratory in Stockholm. The preliminary results suggest that this was fish sauce.

The other amphorae lay inside the pozzo as if placed horizontally there, one against the other, side by side. Many amphora fragments were left in situ in the pozzo wall. Remains of seven different amphorae were collected.
According to Dr Adam Lindhagen (Lindhagen 2009) four of the amphorae were Punic, one from Northern Sicily, one from Baetica and the last was a Pompeian product. All but the last amphora is known to have contained fish products. Only the Pompeian one, which was marked with the letter S, has contained wine. This would suggest that fish products were sold in the taberna.

A piece of a marble basin was found beside the rim of the fourth amphora. Many bone fragments were also found in the pozzo. Some of the wall plaster on the south wall runs below the cocciopesto floor and continues down on the wall of the pozzo. This wall plaster belongs to an earlier phase of wall decoration.