Room h

Thomas Staub

Corridor h1 ended in room h, which served as distributor to the surrounding rooms, corridor h2, leading towards the baths, culinal, room i and roomk and room g. Thus most of the walls are taken up by dooropenings whose frames are mainly built of “tuffelli' or small blocks of other stones. The remaining parts, where visible seems to be constructed in a mixed opus incertum with either yellowish or greyish mortar. A quarter-circular bench was built into the southeastern corner against the walls (radius 0.4-0.6 m, height 0.5 m). In its inner corner a water pipe is visible. A drainage channel leads towards the west, continuing through the adjacent kitchen l. This room was thus used for water dispatching, probably both for room i to the south and, if it did not have its own water tap, for the kitchen. It could have been open to the sky, at least partly, serving as a light shaft for the surrounding rooms, which would otherwise have been very dark. Since parts of the floor have what seems to be a modern repair, it is unclear whether there might have been a water drain also in the floor. This would have been necessary, if it had been open to the sky. Just as the other rooms in this part of the house, this room is part of the enlargement of the Casa del Torello in iulian-claudian times.