Description Small fragment with slab corner on bottom and left sides with a clamphole on the left side. Street is running top to bottom on the right corner of the fragment. The top shows an open area with rows of rooms on the three visible sides. The lower row opens up to a rectangular area, possibly a corridor or court. The lower part of the fragment has one or possibly two rows of rooms without doorways indicated.

Identification: possible connection with 421ab A combination of wall feature matching procedure and boundary incision matching at Stanford has proposed a match with fragment 421ab (Koller-Levoy 2005, 9-10). The boundary incision matching algorithm identified a possible match between frs. 421and 475 (fig. 24). In this hypothetical join, three pairs of incisions align across the slab boundary between the two fragments, and the ductus is not dissimilar. Examination of the actual marble fragments confirmed the plausibility of this match (fig. 25). When the wall feature matching procedure was executed on the combined frs. 421 and 475, the algorithm output two suggested locations on the wall (fig. 26), with one of the proposed locations ranked significantly higher in score than the other. The highest probability position for fragments 421 and 475 suggested by the wall feature matching process corresponds to a placement on the Aventine, with fr. 421 along the top center to the right of the Circus Maximus on slab VIII-6 and fr. 475 in the bottom right corner of slab IX-6 (fig. 27). The clamp holes on frs. 475 and frs. 421ab correspond with Cozza’s clamp holes B7-3 and B7-5, respectively. There are a number of additional factors which can be considered to support such a positioning. Since fr. 475 would be located in the same slab as frs. 7 (IX-6), it would be expected to share similar characteristics. Although the marble veining direction between fragments 7 and 475 appears reasonably compatible, the thickness of frs. 7e and 475 differ by almost a centimeter. However, the fragments would be positioned approximately 0.80 meters apart, and this variation in thickness is not unprecedented for areas so far apart within the same slab. One compelling similarity between frs 7e and 475 is the condition of the marble on the bottom slab edge surface; both fragments have a smooth textured band of the same width (ca. 45 mm) along this edge, and also exhibit a very similar curved pattern of sawing marks. Because the suggested position of fr. 421 is in a previously unoccupied slab, there are no like comparisons that be made to evaluate its suitability here. It is worth noting, however, that the predominate angle of the dense architecture and streets on frs. 421ab is the same (28-30 degrees from vertical) as that on nearby fr. 21 (slab VII-14), and of excavated structures along the Clivus Publicius. Fragment 422 has strong similarities with fr. 421 in thickness, ductus, angle between architecture and veining direction (fig. 28).

Significance