House of the Telephus Relief: raising the roof on Roman real estate

[Melvadius]

The Guardian is carrying an intriguing article about the recent discovery at Herculaneum of the remains of the roof from the House of the Telephus Relief buried in the beach below Herculaneum. Although I found an image of how the House of the Telephus Relief looked in a 2010 edition of the Friends of Herculaneum newsletter here I believe this is a 'temporary' roof which was not necessarily based on the recent archaeological discoveries although these seem to have provided strong evidence on how it was originally constructed.

 

For almost two millennia, the piles of wood lay undisturbed and largely intact under layers of hardened volcanic material. Now, after three years of painstaking work, archaeologists at Herculaneum have not only excavated and preserved the pieces, but worked out how they fitted together, achieving the first-ever full reconstruction of the timberwork of a Roman roof.

 

...

 

The most lavishly decorated part of the immense residence was a three-storey tower. On the top floor was a nine-metre high dining room with a coloured marble floor and walls, a suspended ceiling and a wrap-around terrace. It offered the owners and their dinner guests a heart-stopping view across the silver-blue Bay of Naples to the islands of Ischia and Capri.

 

And now it is providing the archaeologists of Wallace-Hadrill's project with one of their most exciting finds: the timber roof of the Roman villa. "It is not unheard of for bits of roofs from the classical world to survive," said Wallace-Hadrill. "But it is incredibly rare."

 

What his archaeologists uncovered, however, was something altogether more comprehensive

[Crispina]

I'm unable to find the image at the link you provided, tried reading through the list of articles there but still not finding it (image). Why is it called the House of the Telephus Relief?

[Melvadius]

The relevant items are currently at the bottom of the page the first is an advert for a talk called the Telephus Roof Project - presentation dated 3 May 2012 and the second entitled Roman Roof at Herculaneum, dated 8 May 2012.

 

The house is named after a marble relief which apparently shows 'Achilles consulting the oracle at Delphi before going to heal the wound of Telephus'.

[Crispina]

Thank you, I didn't scroll down far enough. What an exciting find.