Identification The most common type of tabernae on the Plan consists of a single room that opens directly onto a street. This type of room could function as a shop, as a dwelling, or, probably more commonly, as a combination of the two. In single-room shops, a wooden loft often served as the actual dwelling area (Reynolds 1996, pp. 158-9). This fragment may depict a type of taberna that had an additional room in the back. Such structures have been found in both Ostia and Pompeii. The back room was either used as the family residence or, if the front room had a loft, as a work and/or storage space. Other examples of such tabernae can be seen in frs. 11a, 11c, and 11fgh (Reynolds 1996, fig. 3.13). Although omitted in this fragment, there would have been doors between the front and the back rooms.

Significance This fragment is typical of non-located fragments of the Marble Plan. It depicts a section of a commercial/residential quarter which is quite different from the monumental architecture in the center of Rome.

Text by Tina Najbjerg