Restructuring of the Area B House

The Southwest corner: Phases 1 and 2

Sam Lash (Brown University) and Marcello Mogetta (University of Michigan)

The Area B house occupies the west half of a city-block delimited, to the east and west, by two of the side streets of the orthogonal layout (Roads 3 and 4, respectively).Two main stages of construction can be identified in the southwest corner of the house, based on the stratigraphy of the free-standing structures.

In the first phase this sector of the house was occupied by a courtyard, delimited by walls SU1245 to the west, and SU 1390 to the south. Wall SU 1245 is preserved entirely. It was originally comprised mostly of large oblong ashlars, though tiles and irregular and smaller tufo blocks were also used for patching. This structure is associated with a large crushed tufo floor SU 1173 (=1215, 1231, 1216 and 1255), which covered the entire courtyard. A rock-cut channel, SU 1230, covered by tufo slabs, SU 1228, exposed by the excavation of a portion of floor SU 1173, runs parallel to SU 1245 along the western edge of the courtyard. The tufo coverings are kept in place by an extremely large ashlar, SU 1410, which sits to directly to the east of the channel, though at a slightly odd angle with its orientation. Looking into the channel one can see that it actually forms a T-juncture with another conduit heading west towards Road 4. The drainage system of the courtyard also included a well, SU 1187 covered by large and well cut tufo slabs 1888.

Wall SU 1390 features a different building technique, consisting of irregular blocks and rubble. Two north-south walls built in the same technique (SU 1470 and 1397) abut wall SU 1390 to the south, though these seem to be part of the adjoining property. This boundary structure, however, was substantially altered in the second phase, so its original limits are not preserved. It is possible that in the initial phase of the house SU 1390 continued west to meet SU 1245. Entrance to the house may have been located in the south, as was the case in the second phase (see below). A particularly large rubble patching of SU 1245, adjacent to drainage SU 1230, could indicate that the original entrance was on the western side and that it was cut off by the reconstruction of Road 4. Its restructuring, in fact, obliterated a significant portion of the southwest corner of the house.

In the second phase the street was paved with basalt slabs (SU 1400) and widened in order to accommodate a new access to the house (SU 1394), thus truncating part of SU 1390. A new side wall (SU 1391) was built to retain the basalt paving blocks, running northwest-southeast from the threshold and along the eastern limit of the road. Both the enlarged pavement, SU 1400, and wall SU 1391 truncate SU 1390, which is clearly visible between the first and second northern most ashlars of SU 1391. Additionally, the western part of SU 1390 was incorporated in a new structure, SU 1415, adjacent to the road side wall.

The pavement SU 1400 runs up-slope to threshold 1394, a single ashlar block cut into two steps leading into the courtyard of the house. The upper step of the block preserves two circular depressions, one on each side, with rusted rings lining the stone- suggesting double doors; an ashlar block, SU 1414, sits to the east of the threshold and to the north of the pavement and wall SU 1391. The threshold gives way to the remains of a crushed tufo floor SU 1477 to the north, which may not have extended much further north at the same level, as there are two small tufo blocks to the northeast. These perhaps delimited a small foyer. Additionally, two more tufo blocks, SU 1505, were found sitting slightly northeast of the threshold and may have originally been part of the construction of this entrance.

These activities clearly represent a formalization of space, with the goal of creating a formal entranceway of the Area B building, and are associated with notable changes in other parts of the house.