Phase 2: interior changes to room 33

[atomrab]

I didn't draw these, because it seemed a bit too difficult, but in the second phase this room contained 6 pithoi and 8 amphorae, crowded together (the anvil had been removed). They would have been around the edges of the room, for the most part -- I can provide dimensions if necessary, although we don't have to be particularly accurate (just have to make them fit).

[atomrab]

The door to the street would present a blank surface on the inside, as well, although the blocking was not as thick as the rest of the wall, so there was a recess where the door had been.

[atomrab]

While I prepare the sketch plan of the pithoi etc, the anvil can be removed, and we'll need to either remove or replace the information panel on the wall, which refers to the previous stage (if you're up for making a new one, I can provide an image of the room at the time of excavation and the relevant text). You can also take a look at Olga Malinovskaya's reconstruction -- https://utexas.box.com/shared/static/hag0gcfns08lgang9xzy4zjm7bpplgh3.tif.

Note that the exterior door should be recessed on the interior -- that is, the blocking surface (which could be textured as individual stones like the photo I pasted into #66) should be set in from the surface of the rest of the wall, since the remains showed that the blocking, which was flush with the outside facade, wasn't as wide as the exterior wall. In the current reconstruction, it looks like it's flush with the inside face of the wall.

[atomrab]

Sorry, didn't mean to close it.

[atomrab]

Here's an attempt to explain what I mean:

[atomrab]

Actually this is better:

[atomrab]

Here is a sketch plan of the position of the pithoi and amphorae in the room at the time of its destruction, overlaid on an actual plan of the deposit. In blue, the pithoi; in red, the amphorae; and in brown, a wooden bucket, the base of which we found in this area. Note also the gameboard on the bench slab outside the blocked door.

[atomrab]

The largest pithos looked something like this, was about 130-140cm tall and 120cm wide:

The smaller pithoi would have been about 60-70cm tall, 20-30cm wide, and probably looked like this:

And the amphorae definitely looked like the following (two could be restored), and would have been around 60cm tall and about 30-35cm in diameter:

[atomrab]

Walking through the model, I suspect that the large amphora (red circle) on the bottom left of the plan above should be put in the corner behind the door, which we currently have opening inward. If we don't move it to the right, it will get in the way of the door -- but if we put it in the S (bottom) corner, the door will open freely. The position of the broken vessel doesn't contradict this placement; if it was originally upright against the wall and fell and rolled a little during the fire, it could easily have ended up where we found it.

[atomrab]

The current arrangement of vessels looks really good, except that the door opens into that large amphora at the S corner of the room, as I suspected. If we can move it further into the corner, I think it'll be behind the door entirely.