Athena Review Image Archive ™
Herculaneum: House of Wooden Partition, impluvium
Herculaneum: Impluvium in atrium of House of Wooden Partition (photo: Athena Review)
In the atrium of most houses at Herculaneum and Pompeii was a shallow pool for catching rainwater, called an impluvium. That at the House of the Wooden Partition, shown here, was faced with marble. It had a mosaic floor made of tesserae mixed with pebbles, a style called Opus Signinum, also used here for the overall atrium pavement.
In
the center of the impluvium is a small hollow column, used for a
fountain. The banded green and white Italian marble used in the
fountain column, called cipolin, was also used in the labrum or cold water basin of the Central Thermae.
Copyright © 1996-2019 Rust Family Foundation (All Rights Reserved).