The Thresholds of Insulae VIII.7 and I.1

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the various types of surviving stone thresholds in Insulae VIII.7 and I.1. Most of the thresholds survive only for the retail doorways along the streetfront; very few thresholds were recovered from any of the doorways within the properties. These retail thresholds are known throughout Pompeii and many other Roman cities, identifiable through their generally wider openings that employed narrow horizontal grooves to accommodate a sliding screen door; at one end, a squared opening in the threshold stone allowed for a night-door to provide access when the screen was closed and locked. These retail thresholds are distinct from the narrower entrances that serve domestic spaces. In addition to a catalog that describes their forms, this chapter demonstrates that the retail thresholds are of a type that begins only in the earliest years of the first century ce at the Porta Stabia neighborhood but were also appearing across Pompeii and beyond.