THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF
Roman Domestic Religion
PP310
VI. xv. 16-18
Cult Space Type:
Cult Room
Date:
79 A.D.
Features:
Altar, Niche, Wall Painting
Associated
Cult Spaces:
-
Room function:
Sacrarium/Cult Room
Description:
In the southwest corner of the building was a cult room, the only decorated space in the building. It had a vaulted ceiling with a floor made from earthenware pottery sherds. Against the south wall was a masonry altar with a concave upper surface. The altar was decorated with a painted flaming altar on its front with serpents on either side. Above the altar was a garland. In the southwest corner of the room was a low masonry altar on the top of which ashes were found. The walls of the room were also decorated, with one wall having a depiction of a palm tree. Near this painting, on the east wall, was a small niche that sat only 0.10m above the floor. On the back wall of the niche was an unrecognisable figure lying on a kline holding an object similar to a cornucopia with a table and a candelabrum. The walls of the niche were adorned with painted red leaves and quinces. On the wall close to the niche was a painted torch. Against each side wall of the room, farther to the north, was built a masonry structure that had a raised rim like an altar.
References:
Not. Scavi 1897, pp. 460-464; Boyce 1937, pp. 55-56 (#218); Wallace Hadrill 1994, p. 215
Image reference:
Not. Scavi 1897 (Via Pompeii in Pictures)