ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 123 |
| AG1980 #
| 123 |
| PM1960 #
| 123 |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 1 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| rough |
| Slab Edges
| 1 |
| Clamp Holes
| 1 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The fragment was part of a slab edge; a clamp hole appears on the lower right side. A passageway separates a row of tabernae. The shops share a back wall and their singular openings face in opposite directions. An internal staircase provides access to an upper floor in the row of shops to the right. Those that face the bottom of the fragment are fronted by an arcade. N.B. The drawing in AG 1980, pl. 38, does not show that the rows of rooms continue to the left, which is clear from the digital photograph and from PM 1960, pl. 37.
Identification The luxury of having an arcade in front of a row of shops was apparently not restricted to such grandiose areas as the slopes of the Palatine, facing the Circus Maximus (see fr. 8bde). Frs. 33abc, 34a, 34b and 34c depict a large, predominantly commercial area by the Tiber which abounds with rows of tabernae and arcades. This fragment might belong to either such areas. Rickman (1971, p. 120) doubts that it depicts a section of a warehouse (horrea).
Significance This fragment is a typical example of the type of structures that made up a large part of the non-monumental fabric of Rome: the commercial buildings. 3D digital matching may allow us to attach this fragment to larger, identified areas of the Marble Plan.
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| HISTORY OF FRAGMENT |
| Like the majority of FUR fragments, this piece was discovered in 1562 in a garden behind the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. From here, it was transferred to the Palazzo Farnese and stored there. The fragment was later used as building material in the 17th-c. construction of the Farnese family's Giardino Segreto (Secret Garden) near the Via Giulia, and was rediscovered in 1888 or 1898 when the walls of the garden were demolished. Since then, it has been stored with the other known FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Commissione Archeologica (1888/1898-1903), the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums (1939-1955), the Palazzo Braschi (1955-1998), and since 1998 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in EUR under the auspices of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma. (This fragment's history corresponds to Iter E'' as summarized in PM 1960, p. 56.) N.B. PM 1960 does not reveal the whereabouts of the fragment between 1903 and 1924.
Text by Tina Najbjerg. |
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| KEYWORDS
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| tabernae, shops, staircase, arcade |
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