West Wall

Renée Forsell

Inner part
The upper part of the wall is missing. The lowermost part was not possible to document due to the fact that most of the N part is located by a pozzo filled with lapilli and the rest is hidden behind the two parts of feature built against the wall in the N corner and in the S.
The wall is built in op. incertum and consists mainly of limestone, cruma, lava stones and to the N a few blocks of tufa. There are some spolia: a few pieces of terracotta and a piece of cocciopesto. The mortar is yellowish buff with tempering of large pieces of lava and lime. Modern mortar can be seen above the feature in the S up to 0.7m and below one of the holes in the wall at the height of 1.55m. Mortar is missing to a large extent in the lower middle part of the wall. The same applies along the N corner in a stretch up to the height of 2.85m. Damage to the wall where several stones are missing is noted near the N corner in an area from 0.35- 1.12m. Above the area where the stones have fallen out the stones are fairly large and regular. They have been placed as if to fill a gap in the wall. Below the damage an extra pile of stones makes the wall look thicker. As the stones was covered with a layer of petrified ash it was not possible to determine if the stones had fallen out of the wall above or belonged to the feature below.

There are three rectangular beam holes at the height of 1.55m. They are placed right by the S corner, at 0.55m and at 1.14m from the S corner. A terracotta pipe, possibly a sewage pipe is visible in the northernmost hole. A fourth smaller hole is located in the S corner at the height of 2.20m. It corresponds in height to the beam hole in the S wall but its shape and size makes it is difficult to determine its purpose, if any.
There are several cracks in the wall. The largest runs all the way from the top of the wall, c. 0.05m from the S corner down to the feature below where it ends 0.80m from the S corner. It runs past the northernmost of the beam holes. Further S of that same beam hole is another minor crack and N of it a third crack has been noted. Theses cracks can be seen as a sign of instability due to the pipe in the wall behind.

Outer part.
The wall is preserved in its original condition only to the edge of the doorway between the outer and inner parts of room c. The upper part of the wall from lintel and up is reconstructed. The wooden lintel was changed during the reconstruction of 2010/11. The wall is clearly built after the S wall as it is built against it.
The wall is built mainly in op. incertum and consists of limestone, lava stones, cruma and tufa. The wall seems to have been repaired twice. At the bottom the wall contains a mix of material, while many large tufa blocks is found in the middle of the wall and above this the wall has a higher concentration of cruma. Along the doorway, the wall is built in different techniques. The lowest 0.08m consists of a lava stone. Above stones are missing and there is a gap of 0.15m. The next 0.20m is built in op. incertum and consists of limestone and a single brick. Above this the next 0.40m of the wall is built in op. quadratum and consists of cut blocks of tufa and cruma. Another 0.47m of op. incertum masonry follows and at the top a single 0.50m high limestone block is supporting the lintel.
The mortar in the lowest part up to the height of 1.00m is greyish and tempered with small pieces of lava and lime. Much of the mortar is gone in the lowest 0.50m. The mortar in the upper part is yellowish buff tempered with large pieces of lava and lime and much mortar covers the stones.

There are no substantial remains of wall plaster or plaster coating. However there are some minor remains of plaster coating on a few stones. At the height of 0.87m there is a line of modern plaster marking the level of the reconstruction.
There are no remains of wall plaster but there were minor remains of plaster coating on a few stones, mostly in the lower S part.