Staircase
Description
Thomas Staub
Abutting against the basin described before the lower part of a supposed staircase is placed against the east wall of the room. It seems as if it was built against and over the plaster on the outside of the basin, but modern repairs are obscuring the precise situation. It is 1.86 m long, 0.87 wide and max. 0.8 m high. It is constructed with mixed materials, mainly cruma, lime stone, tufa and pieces of tiles. This entire structure is much reconstructed, so that the original form can hardly be observed. Especially the upper half of the structure seems to be a completely modern reconstruction, so that it must remain uncertain, if it really was the base of a staircase, or if instead the original form would have hinted towards some sort of work bench.
The main question concerning this structure is, if it originally really was the base of a staircase or if that only is the result of the modern reconstruction. One reason for an erroneous reconstruction could be, that this house in the earliest discussion was interpreted as a residential house with a triclinium opening up towards this room on its north side and a cubiculum on its south side and the basin serving as some kind of impluvium. In this interpretation of course a work bench in this central room would be less probable. If instead the ground floor of the house mainly served for some kind of productive activity, the location of a work bench here would seem totally logical. Another problem with the interpretation of this structure as the base for a staircase is that only one room of the upper floor (the room above room f) could be reached from here. Only if a passage way along the south and parts of the west wall of this courtyard on the floor level of the upper floor had existed, the other areas of the upper floor could have been reached. But there are no indications what so ever for such a passage way preserved. If room g instead for having been a latrina served as a staircase (see description of that room), most areas of the upper floor could have been reached from there. The upper room above room f could then have been reached by means of a simple ladder.