South Wall

Thomas Staub

S wall: width 5.25 m, max. preserved height 3.90 m. The wall is covered by plaster until a height of 3.00 m, without any remains of the decorations. At some places, the upper layers of plaster have fallen down, thus revealing different layers of under plaster, amongst which a protective plaster, containing fragments of ceramics, can be observed. Only at the bottom (up to a height of 0.40 - 1.10 m) and the top, some parts of the wall are visible. In the eastern part, in the area where the original door was closed off, parts of the doorframes in Sarno stone blocks are visible (no dimensions visible). The filling of the earlier door consists of a mixed opus incertum with Sarno stone, cruma and spolias of the reddish mortar, set into a yellowish mortar. Only in the lowest parts and over the closed off door, some modern repairs are visible as well. The rest of the wall is constructed, in the lower parts (height unknown), of lava-incertum, in the upper parts, of cruma-incertum, all set into the reddish mortar.