ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 655 |
| AG1980 #
| 655 |
| PM1960 #
| 655 |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 1 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| not preserved |
| Slab Edges
| 0 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description A free-standing arcade runs parallel to the top edge of this fragment. Below this arcade or portico, on the right, the front part of a colonnaded structure is visible. Two straight lines frame it along the long sides. In front it is lined with three square, recessed columns. The top corner is not a square column but a small, three-sided room facing left. Behind the first row of columns lie two more square, recessed columns, one on each side of the open space behind the frontal colonnade. N.B. In AG 1980, pl. 58, only two of the square, recessed columns are shown - they appear clearly in the digital photo above, however. Behind the second column at the bottom one can barely see the beginning of a straight line that runs parallel and close to the bottom wall of the building. A perpendicular line probably crosses the building at this point also.
Identification The building must be a small podium temple or shrine. Square, recessed columns are a characteristic of temples on the Plan. The temple here is small, consisting perhaps only of a rectangular room, or cella, with two columns in antis and a distyle front. The portico at top perhaps outlines the sacred precinct around the shrine.
Significance The temple or shrine in this fragment is probably too small to have been one of the monumental temples of Rome's ceremonial center. It might, however, be associated with a smaller neighborhood shrine, of which there must have been numerous in Rome. |
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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 familys 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 fragments 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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| temple, shrine, arcade, columns, cella, podium |
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