Every Then & Theory plate comes from a true story, and this card tells the one behind yours.

The Then & Theory team

Rain in the middle of the house

A woman pours water at a well in an arcaded courtyard, with washing on the line and a dog in the shade. The plate names no town or century. In a Roman house, the front hall, the atrium, had a square opening in its roof called the compluvium. Rain fell through it into a basin in the floor, the impluvium, which held the water. Further in, rooms were often grouped around a second open court lined with columns, the peristyle. Light for the whole house came from these open courts.

Sources

1. Britannica, “Impluvium”
2. Britannica, “Compluvium”