One final element in the Augustan phase is only loosely contemporary with the reconstruction of the rest of the house and is dated by its frescoed decoration, which, on stylistic grounds, must date to around 15-5 B.C. In the front of the house, shop C was provided with a new mosaic floor (48: fig. 94, pl. 66). This floor was significantly lower than the plain pavement (118) of the narrow passage in the rear of the shop, and unlike 118, it has a molded edge bordering on the threshold of the door between the two areas. The lower level should be explained by the removal of an earlier floor, while the molded edge of the threshold, in contrast with the cut edge of 118, shows that this pavement was built with or after the dividing wall. Ceramic evidence also suggests that the tile basin that had been constructed over the original cesspit was filled in with a hard red earth (265) at this time. Other features of this phase of C, in conjunction with the fine pavement, suggest a change of use. At the same time as the shop received its new mosaic pavement, its walls and ceiling were decorated with very finely executed frescoes and stucco reliefs (part III, p. 147ff). The quality and apparent subject matter of these reliefs suggest that the room was now used for non-commercial purposes. In addition, the shape of the preserved stucco indicates that the room was now covered with a barrel-vault rather than a flat ceiling; this vault would have eliminated any loft storage space to which an earlier stair or ladder in the rear corridor could have provided access.
 | | Fig. 17: Axonometric reconstruction of room C as an Augusteum . |
It is suggested above that shop C, in its new incarnation, may have been a public shrine. If this is the case, the earlier stairwell or corridor at the rear of the shop may have been put to use as a storage space for cult paraphernalia. Two nails found at the threshold of the door into the corridor suggest that the passage was closed by a wooden door, which might indicate a concern for security equally applicable to the storage of cult material or commercial goods.
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