Part 2: The Stratigraphy : Trenches in the Area of the Forum, and IX D North : Forum V : Phase V: The Late First Century to the Mid-Second Century : The Garden

In the garden, collapse seems to have been more gradual than in the house and less consistent in its composition. The layers of collapse associated with the niche (281, 282, 301) have been discussed above. Elsewhere in the garden, a number of different strata of collapse were identified. The superstructure of the staircase in the west corner of the garden seems to have been the first to go, slumping down to create a heap of rocks and brick in a yellowish, mortar-speckled soil (270). Onto this collapse fell the southwest wall of the garden. The pis» with which this wall was constructed seems to have varied in consistency along the length of the wall: between 270 and the area of the niche, the collapse was composed of a hard, red-orange earth containing a number of rocks (242), while in front of the niche the fallen pis» was friable, brownish-green and less rocky (285). Although the two zones of collapse were clearly different in their areas of greatest concentration, there was no clear boundary between them. Similar ambiguity was present in the south corner of the garden. There, 285/242 seemed to be covered by a friable, light brown earth (335) that was in turn located under a layer of much darker, rock-filled soil (331). All these layers seem to have formed part of the collapse of that segment of the wall, although it is possible that 331 bears some relation to a later sunken-floored structure (below). On the other side of the garden, wall 231 fell westward, toward the aedicula. Its collapse covered the fallen remains (338, 342) of the flimsy Julio-Claudian wall closing room Q and formed a thick layer of dark, compact rocky soil (275). In the north corner of the garden, the activity of the roots of a large olive tree just outside the house disturbed 275 enough to require the notation of a separate stratum (288). In the middle of 288 was uncovered the head of the statue of Diana whose torso was found in the aedicula. The head could have been dropped or left on the ground during the cleanup that piled the other statuary in the aedicula, or it may have rolled from the aedicula into this area of collapse at a later date.

The collapse of the walls of the garden did not cover the entire open area. Instead, it left mounds of debris around the edges of the garden, where the walls had been (pl. 61). Over time, these piles eroded toward the lower center of the space, creating an initial layer of sediment about 20cm. thick (337). Even after the walls had fallen, the robbing of materials seems to have continued: a small pit was dug in the east corner of the garden, perhaps removing a basin or drain at the end of the gutter. Into the fill (333) of this pit had been tossed one of the several herms, now headless, that were originally part of the decorative scheme of the garden. The presence of the herm in this fill suggests that marble furnishings were still being moved around the garden after some of the walls had fallen, and in fact the aedicula, with its deposit of statuary, seems to have been the last part of the garden to collapse. The layer of yellow, friable soil (240) left by the destruction of its walls covered the layers of collapse on either side and the sediment in the center, as well as the marble objects left heaped within the cella. Where this layer covered 275/288, it too had been severely disturbed by the action of the olive roots; the area of disturbance was recorded as 300.

Ongoing activity in the garden up to the mid-2nd c. A.D. is also suggested by the datable material recovered from a number of other intrusions: the fill (262) of a robber trench along the line of wall 264, contained material of the first half of the 2nd c. A.D., as did one of the fills of the three large, regular holes dug through collapse and pavement along the walls of room Q (filled with 356, 376/377, 405). While the date of these intrusions seems fairly secure, their purpose is more nebulous. They seem to relate neither to a structure nor to the removal of building material, unless they simply represent energetic but failed attempts to find worked stone. Similarly, a shallow hole cutting through the secondary pavement to its rudus in the middle of room E serves no obvious purpose, although its stratigraphic position allows it to be associated more definitely with this phase. Three jagged holes in the pavement of room N can be more tentatively identified with the second-century activity, although the small size and irregular contours of these holes may identify them as products of natural processes. Their fill also suggests the latter interpretation: all three were filled with the same material, possibly collapse (353). This fill extended in an irregular patch over part of the floor of room N and contained rocks, tile, and a large amount of charcoal or organic material; such a composition probably reflects the natural accumulation of debris rather than a deliberate act.

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