North Wall
Description
A. Karivieri & R. Forsell
The wall is located between fauces a and taberna 25. It has an east-west orientation.
Description:
The wall is made in opus incertum. While the east and west corners are made of Sarno limestone blocks the filling is made mostly of Sarno limestone, cruma, lava and tuff. Highest up in the west corner of the wall, there is a tuff block supporting the door lintel. There are repairs with tuff and pieces of bricks near the main entrance at the height of 0.57-0.80 m, w. 0.30 m.
Wall plaster: The wall plaster is preserved at the entrance towards Via del Vesuvio, on the eastern part of the wall and by the northeast corner. At the entrance the wall-plaster and plaster coating are preserved up to the height of 2.50 m, reaching 1.05 m from western edge. At the entrance the height of the dado is 0.84-0.85 m. The main zone has a yellow border and there is a quadrangular frame at the height of 1.09 m where the motif is removed. There are also yellow vertical lines visible.
In the eastern part the wall-plaster is preserved up to the height of 2.05m. The dado reaches 0.62 m high above the floor level. The lower part of the main zone has a 6 cm wide horizontal band at the height of 0.68-0.69 m. There are large white panels separated by 19 cm wide yellow vertical bands placed ca 0.97 m apart from each other. Thinner bands, 6 cm wide, separated the wide yellow bands from white panels. Above the plaster is dark and worn. In the cork model the main zone is black. Above the main zone near the northeast corner, a patch of the red upper zone is visible up to the height of 2.48 m.
State of preservation: The upper part of the wall is missing. It is reinforced on the surface. The upper part is restored.
The straight vertical finish of the wall plaster in the upper zone by the eastern door opening shows that there have been wooden door-posts framing the opening towards the atrium.
In the western part, at the height of 3.32 m, there is a hole through the wall, size 0.12 x 0.13 m.
Dimensions: l. 4.01 m; h. 4.60 m.
The stone block in the eastern corner near the floor measures 0.70 x 0.39 m, the block at the centre measures 1.60 x 0.45 x 0.75 m.
