Excavated: 1914 (GdS 1914, 113 (April 2-25); GdS 1914, 120 (April 27-30); NSc 1914, 288-289 with 287 fig. 4; Calza).
Mosaic: SO IV, 76-77 nr. 109, tav. 93 (top).
Inscription: ---.
Date: ca. 150 AD (SO IV); ca. 170 AD (Clarke).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.015-0.02 (SO IV).

Photos and drawings:

Front room and back room (ss)

Front room and back room (dga)

Front room and back room (gh)

Front room and back room (gh2)

Front room and back room (from the north) (gh)

Front room (gh2)

Statio 29 + statio 28 (centre + right) (gh2)

Model of stationes 26-28 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana (Clarke 1979, fig. 36b)

Depiction (top) (SO IV)

Depiction (from the north) (top) (DAI)

Depiction (from the north) (Clarke 1979, fig. 40c)

Depiction (deer, boar) (from the north) (NSc)

Depiction (boar) (bt)

Depiction (boar) (kh; 2013)

Depiction (boar) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (boar) (kh; 2016)

Depiction (deer) (bt)

Depiction (deer) (kh; 2013)

Depiction (deer) (kh; 2013)

Depiction (deer) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (deer) (kh; 2016)

Depiction (elephant) (Alinari; 1985-1995)

Depiction (elephant) (bt)

Depiction (elephant) (kh; 2013)

Depiction (elephant) (kh; 2013)

Depiction (elephant) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (elephant) (kh; 2016)

Mosaic

The floor of the northern half of the back room has not been preserved. In the back room the transition to statio 27 is lost, while the one to statio 29 belongs to the latter statio. The south and south-west part of the floor of the front room are lost. The front room is bordered on the east by a narrow band of white stone, while the west end of the front room is lost.

As in statio 27, the preserved floor of the back room and the front room are surrounded by a frame with a wicker-work pattern. The frame runs between two black bands, two tesserae wide. In the back room it has an ancient restoration in the south-west corner, a solid black patch. In the front room the frame ends in a regular way at the west side after a short distance. In the north-east corner of the front room the frame is at a greater distance from the plinth of the brick column than the frame in statio 27. Within the frame three animals are depicted, to be looked at from the north.

No text has been preserved and there is not enough free space for a text, unless it was at the south end, which would be unusual.

Presumably four animals were depicted originally. The one in the south-west corner of the front room is lost completely. Because the frame at the west end of the room breaks off, this animal apparently broke through the frame (cf. statio 12). From top to bottom we see: a boar, an antelope or gazelle or deer, and an elephant.

Becatti
Border. Il campo bianco è circondato da una fascia a treccia bianco-nera tra due linee parallele nere, di 2 file di tessere, che rientra intorno alla base delle due colonne del portico e si arresta sul lato Ovest net portico anteriore. Sul lato Est una lista di marmo bianco divide il mosaico da quello adiacente. Parte della treccia di contorno nel portico era coperta da un tramezzo di opus mixtum oggi distrutto, come quella della statio adiacente n. 27, tutti e tre gli ambienti 26, 27 e 28 erano originariamente comunicanti e riuniti, presentando anche un analogo motivo decorativo a treccia e una divisione eguale del campo figurato fino a metà del portico postico. Il mosaico geometrico con faro della statio 26 è probabilmente un rifacimento posteriore, e questo ambiente fu forse distaccato dai due adiacenti 27 e 28, che rimasero invece sempre uniti a costituire un'unica statio.
Animals. Un elefante, di profilo verso destra. L'elefante solleva in alto la proboscide, con le zanne ricurve, la coda pendente; sobrî dettagli bianchi; l'occhio piccolo è reso con un punto bianco. Al confronte con l'elefante della statio dei Sabratensi n. 95, questo appare meglio disegnato, più organico, più massiccio. Un cervo in balzo verso destra con le zampe anteriori sollevate, le posteriori puntate a terra, che è espressa da una linea nera con un cespuglio stilizzato. Erge la testa con i palchi ramosi; pochi dettagli bianchi rendono la nervosa rotondità del corpo muscoloso. Un cinghiale corrente verso sinistra fra radi cespugli stilizzati. Sono resi con efficace espressività il grifo appuntito e peloso con le zanne sporgenti, le orecchie tese, l'ispido vello setoloso con sottili striature bianche, la piccola coda ritorta.

Masonry

The ends of the back wall consist of big piers of opus vittatum simplex. From behind the left pier emerges a pier of opus latericium, not showing the core of the wall on the east side, so apparently a door. To the east of this pier Gismondi's plan has a few lines and an arrow, indicating a few treads leading upwards to the north. The back room does not have an east and west wall, even though an east wall is indicated on Gismondi's plan. Calza explicitly mentions a dividing wall, standing on the wicker-work frame. We may assume that the wall was of opus vittatum.

Interpretation

For more information about this statio see statio 27. The boar and deer were indigenous in Italy, but are also physically attested in North Africa.[1] In the Edict on Prices of Diocletian the boar is mentioned as a wild animal amongst the ferae Libycae. The animals are to be looked at from the side of the Tiber, suggesting that statio 28 was an exit of the cluster 26-27-28.

(1) M. Mackinnon 2006, esp. 15-17 and note 43.