Room 07

Thomas Staub

The cubiculum7 is situated on the east side of the atrium. The west, north and the south walls are once more, where visible, erected during the initial phase of the house; only the south wall shows a very mixed opus incertum, set into a yellowish mortar. Since this wall is built on top of the floor, which continues into the adjacent room 6 and abuts against earlier decorations on the west and east wall, it is evident that this wall is a later division of the originally much larger room. The floor consists of a cement revetment with nearly white lime cement with inserted pieces of coloured limestones.
The walls of this room show relatively well preserved remains of the Third Style decorations.These decorations belong to a very ornate, probable late phase of the Third Style. The room had a two-parted ceiling with a vault in the northern part of the room and a flat ceiling in the southern part. However, here the vaulted area is quite small, only approx. 1.2 m deep and with the springing line at a height of approx. 2.5 m. The flat part of the ceiling probably was set at a height of about 4.2 m, judging by the modern reconstructed beam holes on the south wall. Thus the wall on the front side around the vault must have been quite large. On the east wall a window opens up towards the side street, Vicolo di Caecilius Iucundus, a second one in the northern part of the wall was closed up in antiquity, probably in connection with the roofing of the vault, since its outer edge runs over the former window.