East Wall
Description
A. Karivieri & R. Forsell
DESCRIPTION
Most of the wall, except the doorposts is taken up by the doorway towards peristyle l. The part above the door lintel is a modern reconstruction.
Both doorposts are built with opus incertum, mostly Sarno limestone, some cruma.
N doorpost consists of Sarno limestone, some cruma, two pieces of terracotta..
S doorpost consists mostly of Sarno limestone, some cruma, lava, and terracotta, one piece of yellow plaster, plaster on the inside yellow or white. The wall includes spolia, with one black-glazed piece of pottery. The cutting in the doorpost was made for marble or wooden framing.
The S doorpost is built above the cocciopesto floor. As there is yellow plaster in the SE corner the cocciopesto floor continues below the foundation of the wall until the lava threshold. The S doorpost must have been rebuilt in connection with the red decoration of the room. On the N side it is impossible to distinguish if there is evidence for a rebuilding of the doorpost.
S doorpost was built above the lava threshold so that the square cutting in the S edge must have been covered partially.
Room u was previously covered by yellow plaster, and one piece of yellow plaster is built in the S doorpost, which indicates that the doorpost was rebuilt in connection with the redecoration of room u.
Wall-plaster
Several layers of Unterputz are visible, and below the lowermost layer, yellow plaster is visible in the SE corner.
The main zone is yellow, the dado black.
Wall-plaster on the inside of the N doorpost is white or yellow in the middle zone.
State of preservation
Door lintel is modern, made of iron beams and roof tiles, wall above it restored.
Northern doorpost: preserved up till the door lintel.
Southern doorpost: badly damaged, especially the lower part.
FEATURE
Threshold
The threshold is built of two lavastone blocks, cracking in N part. There are large square cuttings for door settings, and there are remains of lead in the northernmost outer cutting.
Length: 3.22 m.
N doorpost: height: 3.39 m, length: 33 cm, depth 61 cm, cutting 37 cm (E-W), 6-7 cm (?) (N-S), height 3.40 m. Wall-plaster in N doorpost: dado 81 cm, middle zone up till 2.65 m, upper middle zone up till 3.73 m, in the upper edge a red border 8 cm, preserved up till ca 3.26 m; upper middle zone (starts at 2.70 m height) is 37 cm high, above it there is a red border 6 cm wide.
S doorpost: height 3.40 m, depth 61 cm, length ca 30 cm, cutting 37 cm (E-W), 6-7 cm (?) (N-S). Wall-plaster in S doorpost: black-coloured dado height 81 cm, main zone preserved up till 2.65 m, plaster is preserved up till 2.85 m.
