D.3. Garden Material. By Elizabeth R. Macaulay. D.3.1. Ollae perforatae (planting pots)

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1 D.3. Garden Material By Elizabeth R. Macaulay D.3.1. Ollae perforatae (planting pots) During the excavations of Horace s Villa at Licenza undertaken from 1999 to 2000, three ollae perforatae, or planting pots, were found in the garden area in front of the central staircase of the residence (Area 24). There is another pot known from the site, which is housed in the museum in Licenza. It apparently comes from one of the earlier excavations in the twentieth century. All four ollae perforatae will be discussed in this section. D Nearly whole flower pot: VH 148=SAL Sector VII.1, Area 24, SU 7040 This pot is almost entirely preserved, missing only a small section of its rim (figs. 1-3). The pot measures 14 cm in height. Its diameter measurements are: rim, 11 cm; mouth, 9.2 cm; base, 5.2 cm; and base hole, 2.5 cm. There are no side holes. It is red in color (Munsell 5 YR 6/6) and is made of porous, moderately coarse clay. In the fabric, there are black and white inclusions, as well as small bits of grog (less than 1 mm). The pot appears to have been fully fired, as the red color remains constant and uniform throughout the wall of the vessel. The pot is slender in form with a small flared rim. This slender form is similar to pots that have been found at Pompeii. 1 It is clear that the pot was wheelmade, as smooth wheel-run ridges are present on both the interior and exterior. The pot has a single hole in its base. Extra material located just inside the hole in the base of the pot indicates that the hole was placed before firing. The potter took little care when making this pot; although the pot can stand up and does not wobble, it is lopsided. Additionally, extra material on the side of the base was not smoothed out before firing. The pot was not broken before it was placed in the ground; it was found intact. The flower pot dates to the last third of the first century A.D., 1. Personal observation on July 10, 2001 at Pompeii. See Jashemski 1979, 239. The pot on the far right in her figure 350 is slender in form. which accords well with the Flavian garden context in which it was found. For the context, see Gleason, C D Flower pot base fragment: VH 187=SAL Sector VII.1, Area 24, SU 7051 This fragment of a flower pot base (figs. 4-5) was found in the rubble level above the ancient garden soil in SU It was identified as a flower pot base because it is clear that there was a purpose-made hole in the base. The fragment of the base measures 1.2 cm across. Based on a comparison with VH 148, the diameter of the base can be estimated to have been about 4.2 to 4.7 cm. The base hole was placed before firing, as extra material is present on the interior of the hole. The fabric of this pot is similar to the fabric of VH 148, though it is slightly lighter in color (Munsell 5 YR 6/8). The fabric, like that of VH 148, contains grog, small black inclusions and small light inclusions, and it is slightly porous. It cannot be determined whether or not there were other holes in the side of the pot. Because the two pots are of such similar fabric, it may be that VH 187 also resembled VH 148 in design and had only one hole in the base. Likewise, VH 187 may perhaps also date to the Flavian period. But a date cannot be assigned with absolute certainty, as this fragment was discovered in the rubble level. D Flower pot base fragment: VH 203= SAL Sector VII.1, Area 24, SU 7067 The diameter of the base is 3.5 cm (figs. 6-7); the base hole, 1.9 cm; and each of the two side holes, ca. 1.5 cm. The base is roughly made. The fabric is neither as coarse nor as porous as the fabric of VH 187 and VH 148. Its color is yellow-buff (Munsell 2.5 Y 8/2), and it is fully fired. There are at least three holes in this pot: one in the base and at least two on the side. One of the side holes is only partly preserved. There were probably at least three holes on the side of the pot, 191

2 Elizabeth R. Macaulay for in general flower pots that have multiple holes on the side have three holes. 2 The extra material inside the base hole suggests that the hole was placed before firing. The holes on the sides also appear to have been placed pre-firing. Moreover, there are no known cases of side holes being placed on the side of a pot after firing. Generally, side holes are placed before firing, 3 and this seems likely with VH 203. The form of the pot and the base is generally that of an inverted bottleneck. This pot was found turned upside down in the top level of the Flavian garden context to the right of the entrance from the atrium into the garden, on axis with the complete flower pot (VH 148). The pot dates to the last third of the first century A.D. 2. There are exceptional cases known at Pompeii and Fishbourne, where the pots have four holes on the side. For Pompeii, see Jashemski 1993, 62. Only one of the recovered planting pots at the House of the Ship Europa (I.xv.1-3) has four side holes and one base hole. At the House of the Hebrew (I.xi.14), one pot was found to have four side holes and one base hole (see Jashemski 1979, 239). During my own research carried out in early July 2002 in Pompeii s storage rooms, I studied over forty purpose-made pots; only one of them (Inv. no ) had five holes. Thus we may conclude that, of the numerous pots known from Pompeii, very few ollae perforatae had five holes. For the general forms of Italian flower pots, see G. Messineo, Ollae Perforatae, Xenia 8 (1984) For forms of flower pots outside the Vesuvian region see P. Liljenstolpe and A. Klynne, The Imperial Gardens of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta: A Preliminary Report on the 1997 Campaign Opuscula Romana ( ) For the planting pots at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Chichester (UK), see B. W. Cunliffe, A. G. Down and D. J. Rudkin, Chichester Excavations IX: Excavations at Fishbourne (Chichester 1996) Also see A. Down, A Roman planter pot from Fishbourne, Antiquities Journal 69 (1989) , and B. W. Cunliffe, Excavations at Fishbourne, (Oxford 1971) Two of the planting pots at Fishbourne appear to have five holes: FB86-D1146 has four side holes and one base hole; FB69-J2.4 has three side holes and a single base hole. A fourth side hole probably existed but does not survive. 3. Jashemski 1979, 239. D Flower pot in the Museum of Licenza: SAL This flower pot (figs. 8-11) was probably found during earlier excavations, although there is no mention of it in the surviving documentation of the and excavations. It is impossible for us to know when and where the pot was found. It is 15 cm in height; the rim diameter at its widest point is 10.9 cm, and the mouth is 9.6 cm. The base is misshapen; as a result, the base diameter ranges from 3.5 cm to 3.7 cm. The base hole is also misshapen, and its diameter ranges from 1.7 cm to 2.1 cm. The size of the side holes range from 1.2 to 1.5 cm. The design of this flower pot does not exactly match that of any of the other pots found at Horace s Villa. This pot has four holes, three on its side and one in its base. The fabric is neither porous nor micaceous, but it has a few black inclusions and bits of grog (no bigger than 1 mm). It appears to be completely fired. The color is an orange-red (Munsell 5 YR 5/8). The body of the pot is slender, like many flower pots from Italy. Owing to the potter s carelessness, it is slightly fuller on one side, and it wobbles when standing up. A similar slender form has been observed at Pompeii. 4 The pot has a noticeably long neck (2.5 cm) and an upright-collar rim. While the rim thickens outward to 3 cm, it remains straight on the inside. All of the holes were placed before firing. The side holes are placed about half-way up the vessel. It has light wheel ridges on both the inside and outside. The pot appears to have broken on the top quarter and was restored from fragments. D Conclusions The flower pots from the new excavations are on axis with a planting pit and with an amphora reused as a planting pot. It is common to find planting pots and reused amphora together in a Roman garden context; reused amphorae and planting pots, for example, have been found together along the Canopus at Hadrian s Villa. 5 The variation in vessel types probably indicates 4. Personal observation on July 10, 2001 in Pompeii s storage rooms. See Jashemski 1979, 239, fig N. Hannestad, Über das Grabmal des Antinoos: Topographische und thematische Studien im Canopus-Gebiet der Villa Adriana, Analecta 192

3 D.3. Garden Material that they contained different types of plants, or plants brought from different nurseries. The pots run parallel to the stairs and path in the Flavian garden. Though the base fragment came up in rubble levels, it was also found on axis with the ollae perforatae, a planting pit, and half of a reused amphora. As the olla perforata VH 203 was also found turned upside down, it is possible that the tilling of soil during the medieval period upturned pot VH 203 and destroyed pot VH 187. The three ollae perforatae found at Horace s Villa in are typical of the range of forms of planting pots found in Italy. The flower pot in the museum of Licenza (SAL 39344) is very similar in form to those found at Pompeii; its body is slender, and its side holes are smaller (1.4 cm) and cleanly made. However, its fabric does not match the typical micaceous Pompeian fabrics. The slender body and flared rim of pot VH 148 is also similar in form to the flower pots that have been found at the House of the Ship Europa and other locations at Pompeii, and at Boscoreale. 6 But again the fabric of VH 148 does not match the typical Pompeian fabric. It seems probable that olla perforata VH 148 was not a pot used for aerial layering, because it lacks side holes to provide drainage and air for the new roots. Rather, it probably housed a sapling or plant that was brought from a nursery. 7 However, the planting pot Romana 11 (1982) See also W. F. Jashemski and E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian s Villa: The Canopus Area and the Piazza d Oro, American Journal of Archaeology 96 (1992) Personal observation on July 10, 2001 in Pompeii s storage rooms. See Jashemski 1979, Nurseries are known to have existed in the ancient world, but our evidence for them is limited and little scholarship has been done on them. Nurseries are thought to have existed in the Nile River Valley, at Jericho, and at Pompeii. At Pompeii, Jashemski identified the House of the Ship Europa (I.xv.1-3) as a market-garden orchard, which would have provided the inhabitants of Pompeii with fruit and other plants. See Jashemski 1993, 61 and Jashemski 1979, The House of the Ship Europa, the active flower industry of Pompeii, and the range of gardens suggest together that there may have been Pompeian nurseries (See Jashemski 1993, 183- in the museum and the buff base fragment may have been used for layering and then planting, because they have side holes. The side holes enabled air to reach the plants roots when being layered and planted. Nothing can be said about the place of manufacture of these pots. The range of fabrics found at Horace s villa is unusual, as compared to the ensembles of flower pots found at sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Prima Porta. The rule of homogeneity is not surprising: Italian ollae perforatae were generally made locally and used locally or at most regionally. There is no ancient kiln yet known from the Licenza area. The range of fabrics from Horace s Villa may mean that these pots and the plant materials contained inside them came from nurseries in different locations throughout the region, or it could indicate that they came from the same nursery at different times. At the moment, the question must be left a non liquet. One way of addressing the matter in the future could be through new excavations of the garden and other nearby villas and their gardens; perhaps the heterogeneity found thus far is deceptive and with more data, the Licenza site, too, will revert to the norm of homogeneity. D.3.2. The Sundial Fragment from Horace s Villa Sundials (solarium or horologium, sing.) are known from ancient sources and archaeological evidence. Ancient sundials marked twelve hours of daylight and were designed with respect to latitude. Vitruvius describes the major types of sundials and their geometric principles (Vitr ; ; 9.8.1). Rome s first sundial, located at the temple of Quirinus, dated to 291 B.C. (Pliny NH 7.213). Romans placed sundials in many public and private contexts across the empire. Beginning in the second century B.C., the wealthy included sundials in their homes. 8 Sundials, a 242 and ). Many plants in Mediterranean gardens could be grown by planting a cut branch in the ground; however, in the case of more exotic plants, perhaps there is the possibility of a specialty nursery that imported potted plants for villa gardens. 8. J. F. Healy, Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology (Oxford 1999)

4 Elizabeth R. Macaulay common feature in both elegant and modest homes of Pompeii, were often found in the garden (fig. 12). 9 A single fragment of a sundial was found during the Pasqui excavations ( ) at the villa of Horace (fig. 13). 10 The exact find spot of the sundial is unknown, although Pasqui did excavate in the garden area, including the piscina. The sundial fragment is a piece of white marble of a fine grain with two intersecting lines inscribed on it. The use of marble suggests a sundial of higher quality than many of those found in simpler garden contexts at Pompeii. The more expensive sundial is consistent with other evidence for luxurious building during the Flavian phase of the villa. 11 An incised hour line (10 cm) and a fragmentary day line (3.2 cm) are visible on the fragment (fig. 14). At the top of the piece, the two lines intersect at a right angle. The surface to the upper left of the intersection has been chipped away, so that it is unclear whether the day line continues in this direction; normally, however, day lines ran across the entire face of a sundial. The hour line continues unintersected. When comparing the incised lines of the fragment to sundials from the villa of Poppaea at Oplontis 12 and from the villa of San Marco at Stabiae, the fragment appears to be from an area closer to the base than to the gnomon; the day line seen here was probably the second of three horizontal lines on the surface of the sundial. The curve of the fragment is steep at the top, but declines into a more gradual slope, which also suggests that the fragment was located near the base of the sundial (fig. 15). The right angle of the day and hour lines also indicates that the vertical incised line on the surface was the meridian, or central hour line, of the sundial. Vitruvius explanation of the geometry of sundials shows that the meridian could only intersect the day lines at a 90-degree angle (Vitr ). The meridians of sundials known from Oplontis 13 and Stabiae intersect the day lines at 90 degrees, thus following Vitruvius precepts (fig. 16). The back of the sundial from Horace s Villa is flat and triangular in shape. Because of the small size of the fragment, it is difficult to identify the original shape of the sundial with total certainty. The curvature of the fragment, however, allows the hypothesis that the sundial was spherical, one of the most common sundial forms. 14 A clean cut along the side of the fragment suggests that the sundial was reused in antiquity. On the opposite side, it also appears to have been picked through in two places. Based on the placement of sundials in Pompeian gardens and taking into account the areas excavated by Pasqui, the sundial was probably located to the north-east of the piscina. The shadow study done by M. Murata, which tracks the positions of the sun in the garden throughout the year, supports this theory; the best position for the sundial would have been along the central axis of the garden, northeast of the piscina where Pasqui excavated (cf. Gleason, C.3 and fig. 32). 9. Jashemski 1979, In March 2000, Gleason identified a single marble fragment as pertaining to a sundial. It is stored in the SAL storehouse in the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore in Tivoli (cassette #270, Pasqui excavations, no inventory number). 11. For another example of a luxurious marble sundial from a villa context, see S. De Caro, The Sculptures of the Villa of Poppea at Oplontis: A Preliminary Report, in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens, ed. E. B. MacDougall (Washington D.C. 1987) , at Jashemski 1993, Jashemski 1979, fig For the curvature of spherical and conical forms of sundials at the meridian, see S. L. Gibbs, Greek and Roman Sundials (New Haven 1976) 122 and

5 D.3. Garden Material Bibliography Cunliffe, B. W., Excavations at Fishbourne, (Oxford 1971). Liljenstolpe, P. and A. Klynne, The Imperial Gardens of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta: A Preliminary Report on the 1997 Campaign Opuscula Romana ( ) Cunliffe, B. W., A. G. Down and D. J. Rudkin, Chichester Excavations IX: Excavations at Fishbourne (Chichester 1996). Messineo, G., Ollae Perforatae, Xenia 8 (1984) De Caro, S., The Sculptures of the Villa of Poppea at Oplontis: A Preliminary Report, in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens, ed. E. B. MacDougall (Washington D.C. 1987) Down, A., A Roman planter pot from Fishbourne, Antiquities Journal 69 (1989) Gibbs, S. L., Greek and Roman Sundials (New Haven 1976). Hannestad, N., Über das Grabmal des Antinoos: Topographische und thematische Studien im Canopus- Gebiet der Villa Adriana, Analecta Romana 11 (1982) Healy, J. F., Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology (Oxford 1999). Jashemski, W. F., The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius (New Rochelle, NY 1979). Jashemski, W. F., The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius, vol. 2, Appendices (New York 1993). Jashemski, W. F. and E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian s Villa: The Canopus Area and the Piazza d Oro, American Journal of Archaeology 96 (1992)

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