V 1,29 Taberna
Description
Mats Holmlund
Taberna V 1,29 is located south of V 1,28 Casa di Tofelanus Valens and usually labeled "Bottega di M. Tofelanus Valens". Della Corte speculates that the taberna was leased to a person called Auxilio, due to a piece of grafitto that originally appeared on the façade between V 1,28 and V 1,29 and which said that "Auxilio asks for people to vote for Casellius as aedile" (Della Corte 1965, 103).
The taberna consists of a single, almost quadratic room that is roughly 14,5 square meters large. It is entered from Via di Vesuvio through a circa 3,40 meter wide door and the doorway is marked by a lava threshold.
The walls of the room are in resonably good shape. One wall and parts of others has been restored and/or rebuilt at various stages. The north wall, the south part of the west wall and the west part of the south wall were rebuilt in Antiquity, probably after the earthquake of 62 A.D. since they are built in opus testaceum, and the north part of the west wall was most likely restored and rebuilt in modern times. The east and the remaining part of the south wall are mainly built in opus incertum and therefore older.
Five (possibly seven) beam holes in the north wall bear witness to the fact that there was an upper floor.
The most striking feature of the room is a circa 1,70 m long, 0,90 m wide, and 0,30 m high bench or foundation by the south wall, close to the southeast corner. It is difficult to determine the function of the feature, but Eschebach classifies it as a foundation of a stairway to the upper floor. However, the narrow space between the extant beam holes in the north wall makes it hard to see how it could be so. More likely the upper floor belonged to the house of the owner of the taberna, M. Tofelanus Valens, and was entered from room f of V 1,28.
Another, a little more hidden, feature is a closed door (and associated window) in the east wall, which indicates that, originally, there was a passage between the taberna and room f.
There are some remains of wall plaster on the north and south walls.
The taberna was examined in September and October 2011.
