Ianua, and the problem with roman doors

I just had to share this with you because I’m so hap­py with how it’s turn­ing out. It’s not quite done yet, but almost. 

Daniel asked me to illus­trate the word ian­ua (door) for the new course. Now, a door is just a rec­tan­gle with a han­dle. But a roman ian­ua… now that’s a chal­lenge. The wee prob­lem is that there are – to my knowl­edge – not that many roman doors left. We have the mas­sive bronze doors of the Pan­theon and the car­bonized slid­ing doors of Her­cu­la­neum, but apart from that things are look­ing dark. 

So how to know what one would look like more than the usu­al rec­tan­gle shape? 

Enter Pom­peii. In the Vil­la of the Mys­ter­ies there is a fres­co that despicts a door. Yes, a paint­ing of a door. So, I based my illus­tra­tion on the fres­co. That way, the image will help every­one to remem­ber the word ian­ua whilst at the same time give you a clos­er under­stand­ing to the world of ancient Rome. 

The vil­la was built in the 2nd cen­tu­ry BC, but the fres­coes with­in are dat­ed 1st cen­tu­ry BC. 

Ps. Obvi­ous­ly this is a fan­cy door for wealthy peo­ple. Doors for the less for­tu­nate would most like­ly not have been as ornate.