Water conduits (gutter) 1

Thomas Staub

The gutter:
Inside the stylobate, the gutter runs around the three sides of the pseudo-peristyle, collecting the rain-and fountain water, and leading it towards the cistern or the wastewater channel at the eastern side of the garden. Even the gutter is made of tuff blocks with a hollow in the middle. They are 0.57 m wide, with a 0.35 m wide and a max. 0.08 m deep channel.
Gutter on eastern side: The blocks of this side of the gutter are ca. 0.60 m wide. The pedestal placed in front of the north wall, and the protection structure built up at the north-east corner to protect the overflow pipe (see below, description of the nymphaeum), cover the northernmost part of the channel. Of the first block, only 0.30 m is visible. Here the channel is covered by cocciopesto with traces of the dark colour. This cocciopesto abuts against the plaster of the socle at the northern end of the channel and the basin in front of the north wall. The same is observable at the second (0.75 m long) and at the third (0.65 m long) block of the gutter. On top of the garden side of this block (after the end of the eastern side of the basin), a small wall is constructed as on the western gutter. This wall is covered by cocciopesto with traces of the dark colour, on top of which a ca. 0.04 m thick layer of lavapesta with remains of a fine plaster is placed. This continues over the fourth (1.30 m long) and the fifth (0.45 m long). Here the uppermost parts are destroyed, so that also the wall itself is visible. It is ca. 0.095 m high and has a greyish, smooth surface, on top of which the 0.042 m thick layer of cocciopesto is placed. The uppermost layer of lavapesta is only preserved in traces. The same is visible on the sixth (0.50 m long) and seventh (0.80 m long). On the next two blocks (0.55 m and 0.45 m long), the cocciopesto layer is preserved only in the channel, whereas the little wall is uncovered. Here is also a regular formed part (0.27 m long, width 0.075) missing in the little wall. At the southern end of the latest block, a groove is carved into the block from west to east for water pipe leading to the outlet attached to the column in this portico. The north-east corner of the tenth plate (1.35 m long) is damaged next to the drain, which in parts show remains of a cocciopesto layer towards the waste water channel, leading the superfluous water out to the back street. A groove in the garden side of the block (0.08 x 0.035 m) opens it up towards the channel, leading the water from the centrally placed fountain in the garden. Ca. 1.00 m to the south is the opening (0.08 x 0.10 m) towards the cistern of the peristyle, on the eastern side of the gutter. On the garden side, near the edge to the corner block, a round recess (diam. 0.08 m, d: 0.06 m) is carved into the block.

In the south portico, the first plate is 1.25 m long, with a 0.08 m wide and 0.07 m deep in carving at 1.15 m at its inner (northern) rim, where the original wastewater channel from the central fountain of the garden, covered with tiles, entered the gutter. The next block is 0.95 m long, the third 0.65 m. Here the western part of the channel still shows a remains of the cocciopesto covering, which continues on the next block (width 1.65 m), here also with traces of the dark colour that seems to have covered the cocciopesto. In this block, there is, once again, an in carving, 0.50 m from its eastern corner, towards the garden, width 0.06 m, d: 0.04 m, running slightly towards the west, with an unknown function. After another 0.30 m, a further groove is carved, between 0.10 (garden side) and 0.18 m wide for two water pipes, one of them running towards south-east. After a further 0.25 m follows the next in carving from the garden side (ca. width 0.05 m), which runs in line with the carving in the stylobate for the pipe of the western fountain. At the southern side of this block, there is a further, very narrow in carving, running parallel with the gutter, 0.04 m wide, and 1.25 m long, and continuing over a corner towards the south in the stylobate and underneath the wall of the western fountain.
The fifth block, without any traces of cocciopesto, is 0.60 m long with an in carving at its north-east corner (width 0.05 m, d: 0.06 m), which runs towards south-west. Also, the next block (1.05 m long) shows an in carving, 0.15 m to the west, width 0.06 m and d: 0.01 m from the garden. The following block is 0.70 m long, as well as the last one, forming the south-west corner of the gutter. In the corner of the garden, a 0.55 x 0.55 m large tuff-block is laid on the ground, surrounded by remains of a small wall (preserved only at ground level, width 0.04 m) on the two sides towards the garden. A similar arrangement can be observed in the south-east corner, but here it consists of a smaller (0.36 x 0.45 m) lava-block, which, on its upper side, shows two imprints of iron (looking like remains of a handle) surrounded once more by a small frame.

Gutter on the western side: On this side, all plates are 0.65 m wide, except for the fourth (width 0.56 m). Cocciopesto covers the channel all along this side of the peristyle. The lengths of the blocks are: 1. 0.60 m, 2. 0.85 m, 3. 0.45 m, 4. 0.80 m, 5. 0.70 m, 6. 0.55 m. After this, the lengths of the blocks are not visible, since their joints are covered either by water pipes or cocciopesto, but the channel continues for 2.10 m, and ends in line with the front of the basin, in front of the north wall. The northernmost part is covered with a cocciopesto floor, except for the position of the secondary water distribution box next to the basin. Starting at the northern part of the fifth plate, remains of a small wall constructed of lava and Sarno stone in greyish mortar is preserved up to 0.10 m height on the garden side of the gutter (max. width 0.08 m). From the sixth block on, even remains of dark colour are visible in the channel.