Wall decoration (extant)

Thomas Staub

Hardly any traces of the decorations are preserved. On the northern part of the west wall, the height of the socle zone amounts to 0.90 m with some remains of light red colour, whereas the middle zone shows some rests of a darker red. At the north-west corner, some remains of a 0.06 m wide yellow corner lesene are visible. At the south-west end, the corner towards atrium4 is marked by a 0.52 m wide and 0.015 m deep stuccoed pilaster, with the same dimensions showing on the atrium-side as well, repeated at the south-east corner of tablinum13. On the east wall, the height of the socle zone is 0.95 m at its southern end, diminishing towards the north, since the border between the socle and middle zones is horizontal and not following the rise of the floor level towards the north. In the upper zone, a horizontal stripe is visible between 2.00 and 2.22 m height, another one at 2.55 m height. On the west wall, the sequence of plaster consists of three layers of under plaster, all related to the decoration bearing layer of fine plaster: the first one shows a high density of lava-split in the lime ground, whereas the second seems to be a protective layer against humidity, since it contains large amounts of ceramic split; the third one is again a more normal under plaster, once more with mainly lava-split intrusions.