2018IPAT-anthonyantonios: HYPOTHESES WEST GORDIAN HOUSE

Looking at the ruins of the west Gordian house we find several clues that would lead us to form some hypotheses to how the house would have been used by the Romans.

Firstly, the location of the house tells a lot about the inhabitant. Since it is on the side the The governor palace means the occupants were highly prominent leaders or some nobility affiliated with the governor at that time. Whoever lived in the house was probably an important figure hence some clues about his lifestyle.

plan of volubilis

Ground floor West Gordian

Located on the Decumanus Maximus, the house has a sort of a portico with an arched wall stretching along the facade creating a covered space flanked by the entrance in the middle and 4 symmetrically disposed rooms probably the tabernae. This space could be either an extension of the tabernae used for displaying items, and more importantly marking the high statue of the house. According to Etienne, two of those tabernaes communicated with the house in the past, we can conclude that they could be used for a meeting room or some sort of a use related to the governors palace.

The entrance is divided into three openings, a big one in the center with engraved columns in the wall on each side and a two small ones on each side. One of those small openings leads directly to a stairs suggesting the existence of a second floor. Also the stair is linked with the vestibule hence the use of the second floor by the inhabitants of the house. The other openings would be used by slaves since the important people would only use the big entrance.

The vestibule quite square in shape would have been well decorated to show the wealth and statue on the occupants. It retains the 3 openings layout on peristyle side.

The peristyle which is one of the most important element of the house has an imposing size (north-south 18,60 m, east-west: 13,80 m). In the center a square basin with a fountain would have been used for the rain water collection and as decorative element. Later, another squared shaped slab with flour shape element would be added to facilitate the collection of rain water. The access to the center of the peristyle is disabled by a low wall hence the idea of some sort of plants that would have been used for decoration.

The peristyle is flanked by three rooms on each side, one of them has a three way entrance and contains a mosaic floor had to be used as a triclinium and the other as normal cubiculas.

The main room in front of the impluvium would certainly serve as the tablinum since it large enough an in the center. The tablinum has one main entrance and two small ones on the south and east side used by the slaves to serve the owner. On the east side of the tablinum there is two rooms. One of those is quite private with a small space in front of it. I suspect it would the owner's room since it has a special entrance to not disturb him. The other one has an entrance that leads directly to the tablinum, since there no data regarding it, it would have been either a storage area or more probably the kitchen where a slave would work all day long. Since it communicates well with the tablinum, the slave can be summoned by the master easily.

On the other side of the tablinum there is two rooms with no clear data to support there uses, i propose that it could be used as service or storage area since it is directly connected to the other side of the house.

The ancient part of the house is completed now we are going to discuss the newer extension.

On the west side of the house a long corridor lead to a big courtyard with a roofed space. The existence of a roof with a service entrance on the back and no apparent slab or floor leads you to think of a sort of storage place where the carriages and horses would enter resupplying the house with goods without disturbing the house occupants.

The east side of the house present a small peristyle with rooms all around it. On the west side of the perystile there is 4 rooms with one of them in relation with the other side of the house. This room would serve as the furnace or the kitchen with easy access to the wood stored on the other side. The two rooms on the north of it with a system of Hypocaust would be used a house for the winter probably and in the summer as a women quarter.

The room on the eastern side of the peristyle well decorated would serve as a rooms. On the northern there is two rooms, a secondary oecus as mentionned by Etienne and a service room probably. Finally a corridor that connects the two parts of the house continus on the other street through a secondary entrance on the back of the house.

As for the second floor multiple hypothesis could be formed. The most simple one is to recreate the layout of the ground floor but this hypothesis is not really realistic since the slave had always there own quarter and putting them on top of the cubiculas blocked some of the sun and invaded the privacy of there masters in a way.

The second hypotheses is that the second floor is solely built on the on top of the tabernae. This hypothesis is more likely since the workers in the tabernae would be able to use the upper floor to sleep or it would be used as a storage area/slave quarter. The layout would be almost exactly the same entering from one room to the other since the poor didn't have much privacy. The openings would be situated from the street side to provide light and not interfere with the privacy of the house inhabitants.

Also some part of the house had a higher ceiling like the tablinum where according to Vitrivius, the height of the tablinum at the lintel should be one eighth more than its width, its ceiling should exceed this height by one third of the width.

Regarding the roof, one has to take into account the two phases of construction of the house so the rain water should always flow in each part separately.