ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 661a |
| AG1980 #
| 661a |
| PM1960 #
| 661 a |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| 661b 666 |
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ANALYSIS
|
| Description A vertical row of back-to-back tabernae is situated in the center top half of this fragment. The shops face right towards a corridor. The bottom room is only a third the size of the other rooms. In the bottom right corner lies the corner of a large enclosure. A small room with an opening facing down is attached to the upper left corner of this enclosure.
Identification This fragment is joined with fr. 661b
(see PM 1960, pl. 57). In 1992, E. Rodríguez-Almeida added fr. 666
to the group based on their potentially rough backs (Rodríguez-Almeida 1992, fig. 13). Rows of tabernae are ubiquitous on the Plan. Generally, however, each shop consisted of a single room with a wide opening towards the street that could be screened off at night. The owners may have resided with their families on a wooden platform in the back of the shop. These tabernae are slightly more luxurious in that they have back rooms which gave the shopowner and his family a bit more privacy. The opening between the back and the front room could be screened off with a wooden partition or a curtain. The function of the enclosure in the bottom corner is uncertain. The small room at the corner of the enclosure may be a small neighborhood shrine (Sartorio 1988, p. 32).
Significance This fragment is typical of non-identified fragments of the Plan. No monumental buildings are represented, and the fragment instead provides a view of the lesser known residential and commercial buildings.
|
|
| 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 |
|
| KEYWORDS
|
| tabernae, shrine, shops, street, enclosure, open space |
|
Prev
