Latrine

Mats Holmlund

The upper floor latrine is a little bit smaller than the corresponding one in room 3 of taberna V 1,31. It consists of a circa 0.49 m wide, 1.50 m high and 0.28 m deep niche in the east corner of the south wall of room 2. The niche is only 0.25 m wide at the bottom and it is connected to a terracotta pipe embedded in the wall. The pipe ends in the cesspit below the floor. Circa 0.60 m from the terracotta pipe, the niche widens into the same small ledge that possibly could be used with a plank to form a seat for the latrine. The niche ends in a round arch.
Including all bricks and tiles of the construction, the latrine is about 1.25 m wide (at the widest point) and 2.05 m high (beginning at the edge of the first terracotta pipe).

The latrine is built in opus listatum and for the most part made up of two rows of tiles alternated with one row of tufa, limestone or cruma. The exception is the bottom that only consists of a single row of tiles. As with the corresponding latrine in taberna V 1,30, the different construction method of this latrine indicates that it was built at a later stage than the wall itself.

The embedded terracotta pipes was originally built into the southeast corner of the south wall, but are exposed at several instances due to the wall plaster falling off. The terracotta pipes are circa 0.40 m high and has a diameter of 0.25 m.

The inside of the latrine was originally covered with hydraulic plaster, but none remains today. However, the extant subsurface of the hydraulic plaster covers most of the inside of the latrine. It is only missing at the bottom, at the right side, and at the right side of the bottom part of the niche.
The outside was covered by the same wall plaster as the wall itself.