Part 2: The Stratigraphy : Trenches in the Area of the Forum, and IX D North : Forum V : Phase I: Republican Construction

After the construction of the first walls of the house, floors were laid down. For the most part, the original floors of the house have disappeared, covered or torn out during subsequent renovations. Since, in most of the building, our excavation ceased at the level of the final floors of the house, we cannot offer certain dating for the more generic pavements. Although most of the floors should probably be associated with the Augustan reoccupation, a few floors cannot be ruled out as original. In the front of the house, the plain signinum in the rear of C and the partial plain signinum floor in the northwest half of D may be original, but their simplicity makes them impossible to date without further excavation¹⁷. Pavements in rooms G (pl. 70 and pl. 71) and F could belong to the first phase of the house on the basis of both style and wear¹⁸. Both these rooms contain floors executed in the signinum and marble-chip technique known as pavimentum punicum, which may date as early as the fourth century B.C. (part III, p. 160ff.). In addition, the floors of G and F are heavily worn, unlike the pavements in the atrium and other parts of the house. The lowest signinum floor of room L and its underlying preparation (339) may also date from the first phase of the house: the find below it of a lamp of the early second century would support this idea (part IV, p. 264). The floor of R bears a molded depression around the cesspit access, probably meant for a metal lifting-bar with a long handle; this may be further evidence that it was constructed as a unit with the original service facilities, but may equally be the result of Augustan refurbishment.

Further to the rear, one floor is certainly original: a signinum floor in room N (428) bonds with the terracotta drain and abuts the original partition wall (pl. 50)¹⁹. The floor of the narrow room to the southwest (S) shows heavy damage, and may therefore date from the original construction of the house. At the same time, it was the closest to the surface of all the floors in the building and its wear may be due to post-abandonment erosion and agricultural activity.

In addition to the signinum pavements above, several beaten-earth surfaces probably represent original floor levels. In shop D, a series of hard-packed layers directly over bedrock (255, 250, 249) may indicate either the preparation for an early beaten-earth surface or the surface itself. A layer composed almost entirely of ash (169), uncovered just over bedrock along the wall between D and the fauces, may represent another layer of preparation or the remains of fire-cracking like that hypothesized for the garden. Similarly, a layer of compact earth at the lowest level of andron M (220) seems to have been the original floor or its preparation.

Activity also took place in the western corner of the house during this period. After the initial cut for the garden had been completed, the area was filled in with soil to a depth of 25-40cm. This soil (392) does not seem to have been uniformly turned over, but was instead planted with a number of permanent small trees or shrubs. Many planting cuts could be clearly seen in its surface (fig. 63). These cuts ranged in size from 0.2m. to 0.75m. in diameter, and most were filled with a greenish earth that probably represents fertilized planting soil (cuts 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, all filled by 381; cuts 399 and 401, the original fill of which was not preserved; cut 415, filled by 414; cuts 417 and 418, both filled by 416; and cuts 424 and 432, filled by 423 and 394, respectively). Such an interpretation is supported by the presence, in the southwest corner of the garden, of a larger, rectangular cut descending to bedrock. The cut was filled with a green soil (cut 422, fill 386) that mirrored the greenish tinge of the planting soil; it was probably a composting pit, and the green color of the soil it contained may mark the presence of decayed organic material with a high phosphate content, such as animal manure.

Fig. 64: Forum V, second phase of the republican garden.

Several planting pits were clustered around a section of the west wall of the house that was later to become a fountain. This might be an indication that a water outlet was present in that area from the beginning of the life of the house, but we have been unable to determine the source of the water even in the later period, so such statements must remain speculative. Not all of the garden area seems to have been planted: a beaten-earth surface of red soil with white speckles (426) was mixed with 392 along the southeast wall of the garden, and may indicate the earliest phase of a non-agricultural use surface in that area. The final feature of the initial garden lay in the east corner and was composed of a depression filled with a soft, brown soil (425); this layer was unlike any of the other plantings in the garden, and its very poor stratigraphic preservation made it impossible to interpret.

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17. The signinum in C is significantly higher than the later mosaic floor, but the construction of the mosaic floor presumably involved the total removal of any earlier pavement, and it could easily have been laid down on a lower level than the original floor. The early phasing of the pavement at the rear of the shop is supported by the rough edge between the signinum and the secondary dividing wall; it appears that the pavement was cut during the construction of the wall, rather than laid against it. In shop D, the early beaten-earth surfaces are substantially lower than the signinum pavement, which might suggest that the signinum is a later feature. At the same time, however, it is possible that part or all of the original beaten-earth floor was removed during the laying of its late 1st c. B.C. successor (see below).

18. See the discussion of the floors and decoration in part III.

19. This pavement did not continue over the area of the drain between the wall dividing the room and the wall of the garden. In fact, there was no indication that the area of the drain had ever been paved. Since the only door to this room in the Republican and Augustan periods led into this area, we must assume that it was floored with wooden planking until the drain was filled in and the Claudian/Neronian floor laid down. On the state plan of the house (fig. 4) this area is shown as it appeared after we had removed part of the Neronian floor of N and its preparation.