The wooden partition house was unearthed during archaeological excavations at Herculaneum, after a violent eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD buried it completely along with other houses.
The discovery of the house on exceptional, the dwelling was found with the wooden partition wall still perfectly intact. Despite the fact that it had been imprisoned for centuries under a 20-meter-high blanket of mud.
The structure of the house
The wooden partition house of Herculaneum is located in insula III, near the central baths.
Originally, the dwelling was structured on two levels, which is also testified by the presence of wooden beams still visible on the outside of the house, which once supported an old balcony on the second floor.
At the entrance to the wooden partition house, we find a small corridor leading directly into the atrium, decorated with wall frescoes reproducing the theatre setting and paved with white mosaic tiles. In the centre, as in all Roman houses, is the impluvium, i.e. the basin for collecting rainwater.
A marble table was found in front of it, which was used to display vases and precious metals during banquets and celebrations.
The Wooden partition
A series of rooms open out from the atrium, including the tablinum, i.e. the homeowner’s office, separated from the latter by a wooden door, the wooden partition from which the entire dwelling takes its name. The partition was a large wooden wall divided into three parts. Two smaller lateral ones and a larger central one, decorated with bronze studs that were once used to support lamps.
All around the atrium were other rooms, the cubicles. Including one paved with geometric motifs and a black and white mosaic whose paintings on the walls are still visible. In another room of the house, however, the charred bedstead of a wooden bed was found.
Next to the tablinum was the winter triclinium, rich in beautiful wall decorations also in the classic Pompeian red colour.
The wooden partition house of Herculaneum also had a wonderful peristyle colonnaded on three sides with a garden in the centre. The portic of the peristyle was decorated with marvellous frescoes depicting a fountain surrounded by ducks, a snake and an ox’s head.
Through the peristyle one could access the upper floor and a series of rooms used as reception rooms.
