East Wall
Description
Mats Holmlund
Ground floor
The construction method of the wall is opus incertum and it consists mainly of limestone, with some pieces of lava and cruma.
There are no visible spolia in the wall. From circa 2.00 m from the floor level in the south corner there are two patches with remains of ash, pumice and lapilli. The first area begins at 2.00 m and ends at 2.70 m from the ground. The first patch is made up of what looks like two successive steps (the first starts 2.20 m from the floor level and the second starts 2.40 from it). In the middle of the wall, the first step turns upwards to 2.40 m in the north corner. The second area is triangular in shape and begins circa 2.50 m from the floor level in the north corner and ends 3.00 m from it. At its widest point it is circa 0.20 m wide.
The mortar of the wall is yellowish grey and contains grains of lava and limestone.
From the floor (which is circa 0.20 m lower in the north corner than the south) up until 2.00 m in the north corner and from circa 0.50 m from the floor level to 1.70 m the ground in the south, the wall is covered by plaster. Up to circa 0.85 m from the ground in the south corner only the subsurface of the plaster remains and in the middle of the wall, there is a semi-circular area (measuring 0.50 x 0.75 m) where the subsurface is completely missing. This semi-circular or oval area is padded with pinkish modern mortar.
At 0.85 m from the ground (in the south corner) there is a horizontal, red decorative band that demarcates the wall plaster. The band is circa 0.07 m high and turns upwards at both the south and north corners of the wall, and at the top of the plaster area (circa 2.00 m from the floor level in the north corner) it looks like the red decorative band turns horizontal again, creating a "rectangular frame". Within the frame the surface of the plaster remains, but it’s badly weathered and it’s impossible to discern the original colour. Approximately in the middle of the frame (circa 1.00 m from the ground), there is a circa 0.20 m wide and 0.50 m high square "hole", which indicates that a part of the wall painting has been cut from the wall. The hole is filled with modern light grey mortar. Above the frame, in the north corner, there is also modern mortar applied to fix the plaster to the wall.
Upper floor
See description of upper floor of room 2.
