ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 619a |
| AG1980 #
| 619a-b |
| PM1960 #
| 619 a b |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 2 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| smooth |
| Slab Edges
| 0 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The straight edge of this fragment is not part of an ancient slab edge; it was cut off in 1742 during a reconstruction of the Plan in the Capitoline museums. This implies that the area to the left of the vertical line that traverses the fragment on the left was blank. The majority of the fragment is occupied by a series of parallel, horizontal lines, perpendicular to the vertical line on the left. The lines are equally long but the distance between them increases from top to bottom. All lines are finished off with a short, perpendicular stroke, probably representing short wall sections. Thus the rooms could be closed off at each end. The third room from the bottom is blocked by a cross wall at its left end.
Identification The function of these rooms is uncertain. They are unique on the Plan. The authors of PM 1960 offered no identification but claimed that the rooms did not represent the starting gates (carceres) of the Circus Maximus (PM 1960, p. 153). They seem to be commercial structures.
Significance 3D digital matching may help attach this fragment to already located and identified areas of the 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. It was not among the fragments that were reproduced in the Renaissance drawings that are now kept in the Vatican, but Giovanni Pietro Bellori included it in his 1673 publication. In 1742, it was moved to the Capitoline Museums and exhibited with some of the other known fragments in wooden frames along the main staircase. It was during this reconstruction project that a blank section of the fragment was cut off to fit it into the frames (PM 1960, p. 27). In 1903, museum curators included the fragment in a reconstruction of the FUR mounted on a wall behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori (1903-1924). Since then, the fragment has been stored with the other known FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums again (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.)
Text by Tina Najbjerg |
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