Blogging Pompeii: An interesting bit of street furniture at 8.3.2?

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

An interesting bit of street furniture at 8.3.2?

Here we have a small, conical stone imbedded in the pavement/sidewalk just west of the entrance to the property at 8.3.2 and next to steps leading to the elevated pavement/sidewalk leading to the comitium at 8.3.1.

I'd be very grateful for opinions on the object's identity as it is relatively small (the scale measure is in 1cm blocks) and it does appear to have some wear to the top of the object.

Any guesses?

Thanks!

*Apologies for the object being caught in the shade of the step. It is located on the lowest level in the corner before the first step.

3 comments:

Eric Poehler said...: My best guess is that this might be a pivot post for a large doorway that controlled access to the comitium, matching the rectangular post cuttings along (at least) the western curb above the steps that indicate a large wooden structure was built here.; 6 October 2010 at 01:42
Sera Baker said...: Thanks for that, Eric. Your thoughts are in line with my own early conclusions, especially when combined with the rectangular post cuttings situated nearby as well as the wear marks and fixing point in the wall above the pivot post.; 6 October 2010 at 11:57
Eric Poehler said...: Sera,

You might try the following citation:

Fuchs, Gunter.
Fragmenta Saeptorum. Intersuchungen am
sogenannten 'Comitium' in Pompeji.
RM 64, 1957, pp, 154-194, taw. 25-32.

Garcia y Garcia reference #5554.; 6 October 2010 at 15:30