Nero\'s Golden House dining room?

[Epictetus]

In the newest announcement of "celebrity archaeology," the BBC reports on the possible discovery of Nero's rotating dining room from the Golden House.

Apparently this is based on Seutonius:

There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens.

Suetonius, Nero, 31

Interestingly, in the past it seems some experts believed that it was the ceiling, not the room itself, which rotated.

[M. Demetrius]

Whether the room or "just the ceiling" rotated, it's an impressive work. I wonder if they'll explain how the bearing/roller system worked. That's a lot of weight to support and keep in continuous motion, water powered or not. Good engineering.

[Nathan Ross]

Amazing! It constantly surprises me that the centre of Rome - surely one of the most excavated areas on the planet - continues to reveal these huge new finds. I would guess, actually, that the existence of this structure had been known for a great many years, but the money and motivation for a proper dig were lacking.

Interestingly, it's apparently on the Palatine hill, not over on the Oppian with the rest of the Domus Aurea - from the last scenes of the video clip, it appears to be around the north-east slope. Was this where the bits of the supposed 'Domus Transitoria' were previously discovered?

- Nathan

[Epictetus]

Whether the room or "just the ceiling" rotated, it's an impressive work. I wonder if they'll explain how the bearing/roller system worked. That's a lot of weight to support and keep in continuous motion, water powered or not. Good engineering.

I believe Curio built two wooden theatres that rotated to form one single ampitheatre. Pliny was aghast at the idea that spectators would sit in the seats as it turned. So evidently the Romans were no strangers to engineering of this sort.

Edit:
And Cambridge's good old Mary Beard is prudently reserving judgement.

I was always told that the "octagonal room" (in the picture) in the excavated area was what Suetonius was referring to. How exactly it rotated, or what rotated, is anyone's guess. But obviously that's been a bit massaged (or forgotten) in the new story.

I am actually a bit baffled by these recent archaeological discoveries. I have only looked at them briefly. But where exactly ARE they? And, honestly, does a big pillar really prove that we have got a rotating dining room... and what exactly rotated anyway?