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March 6, 2008
The Crypta Balbi and a new Mithraeum!
I had a number of firsts today - I'll talk about one here and one in the next post. "Layers of Rome" went to the Crypta Balbi this morning - one of my favorite museums in Rome, one of the few which covers the early Middle Ages unapologetically. What's more, it's a very new museum and full of delightful conceits of post modern museology - like this grand space in which we see a wire frame reminder of the architecture of the porticus with a few fragments of decorative stucco which would have been applied originally over brick cores (and click to go to the Flickr photo stream to see a view from the rar of this reconstruction). Beyond the wire and stucco facade of the portico is the heavy travertine and tufa rear wall - all this sheltered under a very high tech steel and glass roof. We went to the lowest level, to the top, and out to the exedra - where we saw a recently excavated mithraeum!
This is the second mithraeum the class has seen (we've also been to San Clemente). This one is in almost as good a shape - and they pulled some interesting bits out, of which I didn't get any decent pictures. I hate shooting things in vitrines. One fun thing here is the pit between the couch area, which the archaeologists are reconstructing as a drain for the bull blood from the taurobolium, the bull sacrifice.
The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies says it was excavated in 2000, which is still pretty recent. Their photograph shows the pit still covered with a round drain cover (?). They also have a photograph (taken through the vitrine!) of the marble fragments found there - a tiny taurobolium relief is on the right.
Here's a reconstruction of a ceremony in the space which may help you make more sense of my photo.
The next time I teach the course here I might have to do a whole week on Mithraea per se.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at March 6, 2008 5:08 PM