Room 1

Mats Holmlund

Room 1 is the largest room of the taberna V 1,30 and probably was a shop of some kind. It covers circa 15 square meters and is square shaped. It is entered through a circa 3,40 m wide doorway from Via de Vesuvio and there is a door in the back, leading into room 2.

The walls of the room are mainly built in opus incertum, but the western parts of the room are built wholly or in part in opus testaceum, and this indicates that these parts were restored and/or rebuilt at the latter stages of the town’s existence. A common and plausible hypothesis is that they were rebuilt after the earthquake of 62 A.D.
There are some areas where plaster remains on the wall. Subsurface plaster remains on parts of the south and the southern part of the west wall and in a niche, located close to the northwest corner in the north wall, red plaster with traces of decoration is extant. According to Eschebach, the niche is a small lararium (Eschebach 1993, 129).
No parts of the floor remain.

A lava threshold at the entrance of the taberna, the niche, and a limestone block in the floor are the only visible features of the room. There are, however, a couple of hidden features: The first and foremost one is a vault shaped cistern below the floor. The opening of the cistern is located by and in the middle of the south wall. There is also a water conduit in the wall leading to the cistern. Lastly, there is a closed door in the south wall, leading into room 1 of taberna V 1,31 (indicating that V 1,30 and V 1,31 at one stage formed a single taberna or shop).