VII.6.11 Pompeii. House or Hospitium?
Linked to shop at VII .6.10 and
other entrance at VII .6.16.
Excavated 1817, 1868, 1910.
According to Garcia y Garcia Region VII, Insula VI was one of the insulae most devastated over the years since its excavation.
He calls it the “Cinderella” of Pompeii. Between the years 1759 and 1762 it was vandalised and stripped by the Bourbons, then re-interred.
Then came the slow and non-systematic uncovering again before the final destruction in September 1943.
The area was ignored and abandoned during the years following the war, which reduced the insula to a heap of bricks and masonry.
See Garcia y Garcia,
L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.102).
VII.6.11 Pompeii. Plan based on PPM.
See Carratelli, G. P., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici: Vol. VII. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, p. 180.
According
to Fiorelli,
This had in the west
wall of the entrance corridor, the doorway that communicated with the
aforementioned workshop, and thereafter the atrium without rooms in its side
walls, but which contained a hearth and a cupboard/(apotheca). Facing across the
atrium was the tablinum, and near to it was a passage by which one comes to
more inside rooms, and also another exit into the Vico in the east, where
another shop seems to have been part of the same building, which originally had
been a house, then it was joined to various backrooms, and probably used for Caupona or hospitium.
(Questo ha nel protiro la porta che communicava
con l’anzidetta bottega, e quindi l’atrio privo di stanze nei fianchi,
contenente un focolare ed un’apotheca. Vi era di fronte il tablino, ed allato
ad esso un passaggio per cui si perviene a stanze piu interne, e si riesce
anche nel vico ad oriente, ove un’altra bottega sembra aver fatto parte dello
stesso edifizio, ch’essendo stato prima una casa, fu poi unito a varie localita
dietroposte, ed usato probabilmente per caupona od hospitium.)
See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La
Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.160)
VII.6.11 Pompeii. December 2004. Looking south towards atrium, from entrance.
VII.6.10/11/16, Pompeii. c.1930. Flooring in atrium
and side of impluvium.
DAIR 41.721. Photo © Deutsches Archäologisches Institut,
Abteilung Rom, Arkiv.
See Pernice, E.
1938. Pavimente und Figürliche Mosaiken: Die Hellenistische
Kunst in Pompeji, Band VI. Berlin: de Gruyter, (p.
84-5, and Taf. 38,2 above).
According
to PPM,
“Particularly interesting was the flooring of the atrium (61)
in lava and mortar wrought with flakes of green, red, yellow and white
limestone, and the masonry impluvium covered in cocciopesto with a moulded edge
that Pernice thought was very elegant. Seen in the cocciopesto border and the
base were black, grey, yellow, pink, green, and white flakes, roughly square in
shape, with a disposition not entirely regular.”
(Particolarmente interessante era la pavimentazione
dell’atrio (61) in battuto di lava e malta con scaglie di calcare verde, rosso,
giallo e bianco, e l’impluvio in muratura rivestito di cocciopesto con un bordo
dal profilo modanato che colpi Pernice per la sua eleganza. I bordi e il fondo
presentavano allettate nel cocciopesto, scaglie nere, grigie, gialle, rosa,
verdi, bianche, di forma all’incirca quadrangolare, con disposizione non del
tutto regolare).
See Carratelli, G. P., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici. VII,7, Roma:
Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, (p. 180.)
This area was affected by the bombing in September 1943.
A photograph of the area can be seen showing the same brick pilaster, about the only thing left standing in the area after the bombing.
See Garcia y Garcia, L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei.
Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.104, Fig 233 (Foto SAP neg. no.176)
Looking north across north
side of Reg. VII, Ins. 6, the entrance doorway of VII.6.11 can be seen on the lower
right.
The entrance doorway to
VII.6.7 can be seen on the lower left. Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer.
VII.6.11
Pompeii, lower right. Michel Amodio cabinet card 3013 panorama and Rue Domitienne.
Looking
north across north side of Reg. VII, Ins. 6, the entrance doorway of VII.6.11
can be seen on the lower right.
Centre left is Via Consolare, and fountain at junction with Vicolo di Modesto. Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer.
The entrance corridor of VII.6.11 can be seen on the right of the photo, leading into the atrium.
The brick pilaster can again be seen in the lower right of the photo.
Looking north across north side of insula VII.6, lower photo, across to Via Consolare and junction with Vicolo di Modesto, centre left, and VI.6, centre right.
The entrance corridor of VII.6.11 can be seen on the right of the photo, leading into the atrium.
Photo
by permission of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. File name
instarchbx208im011. Source ID. 44337.
See photo on University of Oxford HEIR database
According to Notizie degli Scavi, 1910, p.461-2 - (Note: can be read in
italian at the end of the photos)
Entrance doorway to a small house or caupona or hospitium (note see Fiorelli), to which one accedes from number 15/16 in the Vicolo delle Terme VII.6.15/16).
The entrance corridor/fauces, numbered 60, had a floor of Signinum, sloping towards the street, and communicating, by means of a doorway in the western wall with the shop at 59. The fauces opened into a tuscanic atrium 61, with a floor of cocciopesto and with a square impluvium in the centre, decorated around with a band of Opus Segmentatum. There is no decoration on the walls today.
In the north-west corner there was a cupboard/apotheca b '; in the extreme right of the east wall was a masonry stove (e’) to put a large boiler on top of.
The southern wall is interrupted by two doorways, of which the one on the right leads into a type of tablinum 62, a square room open almost entirely onto the atrium, with a threshold of Signinum and floor of ordinary cocciopesto, remains of rough plaster on the walls and large window in the east wall; the left doorway leads into room 63, opened entirely towards the atrium, with unadorned walls, with a circular lava cistern-mouth at d’, with a lid of the same material.
Through a doorway on the left, one passed into a type of corridor numbered 64, and by this into room 65, which was a shop with its large entrance in the Vico delle Terme (VII.6.16, no. XVI on above plan), a shop with remains of yellow plaster on the walls, and having a rear shop-room numbered 66, with bare walls,
From room 63 you passed through a doorway open in the south wall into 67, another room with an ordinary cocciopesto floor, and with a faded trace of painted zoccolo, and from this into a smaller room 68, likewise rustic. To the east of the latter is another small room 69, communicating with it, notable for a rectangle in the middle of the cocciopesto floor, formed by the union of coloured marble slabs, cut into discs, hexagons, squares, and rectangles.
In the south wall was a window onto 70. This was a room, in which you entered really from room 68, and while communicating with the following room 71, by opening entirely onto it, yet it was divided from the same, by finding oneself much higher, in a way that you do not see if there would have been steps or a clear division by level difference. This second room (71) was also rustic, it had a cocciopesto floor, and it had a window to the west communicating with the room 122 of the house xxviii.
The previous room 70, partly preserved the painted decoration of the lowest part of its walls, and this decoration consisted of a low red zoccolo without any sort of painted panels whatsoever, exhibiting the representation of various plants in bulk.
To the right then in room 68, instead of a whole wall, it was only a masonry pluteus; on this was painted between two plants, and likewise on a red background, a quadruped looking to the left, which looked like a wild boar with the stomach and chest resting on the ground and with all four legs folded (Fig. 8, on page 462). Most remarkable was the head with the characteristic elongated muzzle, resting on the fore legs, of which the right is superimposed on the left; also remarkable was the manner with which the fur was indicated. The painting is well preserved.
VII.6.11
Pompeii. 1910. Painting from masonry pluteus in room 68 showing a wild boar.
See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1910,
p. 462, fig. 8.
VII.6.11 and 28 Pompeii. 1910. Looking north from the rear of VII.6.28.
The capitals of the House of Pansa can be seen in the centre of the photo.
(This may be photographed from room 22 of VII.6.28, with room 71 behind the wall on the right.
The lower room ahead may be room 70, linking through to room 68.
Room 68 and 69 would appear to run in a line connected to the NW corner of the cistern building, in the centre right.)
Photo courtesy of Drew Baker.
Notizie degli Scavi, 1910,
p.461-2
(XI. Vano d'
ingresso di una piccola abitazione o caupona o hospitium (5), alla quale si
accedeva pure dal n. XVI nel vico delle Terme.
Le fauces 60
hanno il pavimento di signino in pendio verso la via, e comunicano, per mezzo
di un vano attraverso la parete occidentale con la bottega 59. Queste fauces
riescono in un atrio tuscanico 61, dal pavimento di coccio pesto e
dall'impluvio quadrato, al centro, decorato intorno con una fascia di opus
segmentatum. Le pareti oggi si mostrano affatto disadorne.
Nell'angolo
nord-ovest un'apotheca b' ; nella estremità dr. della parete orientalo un
fornello in muratura e' per porvi sopra una grande caldaia.
La parete
meridionale è interrotta da due vani, dei quali quello di destra introduce in
una specie di tablino 62, stanza quadrata aperta quasi interamente sull'atrio,
con soglia di signino e pavimento di coccio pesto ordinario, avanzi di intonaco
grezzo sulle pareti e grande finestra nella parete orientale; quello di
sinistra nell'ambiente 63, aperto interamente verso l'atrio, dalle pareti
disadorne, con una bocca circolare di cisterna in d’ di lava, con coperchio
della stessa materia.
Per un vano a
sin. si passa in una specie di corridoio 64, e da questo nell'ambiente 65, che
era una bottega col suo largo ingresso nel vico delle Terme n. XVI, bottega con
avanzi d' intonaco giallo sulle pareti, e avente un dietrobottega 66, dalle
pareti disadorne.
Dalla stanza
63 si passa per un vano praticato nella parete meridionale in 67. altra stanza
dal pavimento ordinario di coccio pesto, e con traccia evanescente di zoccolo
dipinto; e da questa nella stanza più piccola 68, parimente rustica. Ad oriente
di quest'ultima è un altro piccolo ambiente 69, con essa comunicante, notevole
per un rettangolo nel mezzo del pavimento di coccio pesto, formato dall'unione
di lastrine di marmi colorati, tagliate in dischi, esagoni, quadrati,
rettangoli.
Nella parete
meridionale una finestra su 70. Questo è un ambiente, nel quale si entra
parimente dalla stanza 68, e pur comunicando con l'ambiente seguente 71, per
aprirsi interamente su di esso, tuttavia è diviso dallo stesso, per trovarsi
molto più in alto, in maniera però che non si vede se vi fossero degli scalini
o una netta divisione per differenza di livello. Questo secondo ambiente (71) è
affatto rustico, ha pavimento di coccio pesto e aveva una finestra ad occidente
comunicante con l'ambiente 122 della casa XXVIII.
L'ambiente
precedente 70, conserva in parte la decorazione dipinta della parte inferiore
delle sue pareti, e questa decorazione consiste in un basso zoccolo rosso senza
riquadrature di sorta, esibente la rappresentanza di varie piante messo alla
rinfusa.
A dr. poi del
passaggio in 68, invece della intera parete, è solamente un pluteo in muratura;
su questo è dipinto tra due piante, e parimente su fondo rosso, un quadrupede
di profilo a sin., il quale sembra un aper riposante col ventre e col petto sul
suolo e con tutte e quattro le zampe ripiegate (fig. 8, on page 462). È
notevole la testa dal caratteristico muso allungato, poggiata sulle zampe
anteriori, delle quali la destra è sovrapposta alla sinistra; notevole pure la
maniera con cui è indicato il pelo. La pittura è ben conservata.)
Fine del Notizie
degli Scavi, 1910, p.461-2