ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 137 |
| AG1980 #
| 137 |
| PM1960 #
| 137 |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 1 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| rough |
| Slab Edges
| 0 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description On the left, a row of tabernae backs onto a large open space. A passage way separates this cluster from two structures on the right which in turn are divided by a street. N.B. The corner of the uppermost structure to the right is missing from AG 1980, pl. 38.
Identification The open space behind the tabernae is a large courtyard, probably enclosed on all sides by shops or walls for privacy. Although not indicated on the Plan, all the tabernae that backed onto this yard would have an opening in the rear that provided access to the space. Such rear courts are common on the FUR -- a few other examples are frs. 281, 184 and 279ab (Reynolds 1996, pp. 163-64). They provided air, a work area, and perhaps even a pleasant garden setting which was an especially desirable feature in the crowded city.
Significance This fragment is typical of non-identified fragments of the FUR. It depicts an area devoted to residential and commercial structures, thus visibly different from the center of Rome with its political and religious monuments. |
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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 inPM 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, courtyard |
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