Manufatti e culti domestici “invisibili”: le arule fittili. Due esemplari pompeiani dagli scavi presso la domus al livello superiore del Complesso delle Terme del Sarno (VIII 2, 21)

Within the wide range of objects collected under the instrumentum domesticum label, lies a category of roman terracotta artifacts, sometimes difficult to distinguish and recognize, which testifies ritual practices connected to the worship of deities, linked with the protection of house and family. This paper focuses on arulae, clay objects reproducing, in a small-scale, monumental stone altars, used to burn small libations or fragrant essences as part of domestic rituals typically addressed to Lares and Penates. The lack of attention traditionally dedicated to this class of materials, both in museum exhibitions and in the oldest scientific papers, depends on their poor artistic value and the difficulty of a correct identification, especially for fragmented or incomplete exemplars. Furthermore, these objects represent the outcome of religious practices which leave no other archeological evidence and are closely related to the immaterial – and hard to reconstruct – field of the domestic rituality. The present paper aims to summarize the current state of knowledge about those artifacts and to illustrate typology, chronology, and hypothetical use of two incomplete arulae found during the recent investigations at the upper level of the Sarno Bath Complex, in Pompeii. In this particular case, the two objects provide a precious evidence of living phases dating between the end of the II and the beginning of the I century BC and suggest domestic religious practices probably performed by those who lived into the previous houses brought to light beneath the current domus at the civic 21.