as a reception-room made the atrium a semi-public space, and it came to be known as the pars urbanan, the city part of the house. The more private space behind the tablinum was the pars rusticana, the rural part. The pars rusticana was centered around a peristyle; it did not exist in early Roman houses. Greek culture was high-status in Roman culture (see Hellenization). The peristyle was borrowed from Greek architecture and became popular, eventually sometimes replacing the atrium. As a result, the names for the pars urbanan are in Latin, while the names for the pars rusticana are Greek loan-words. In the countryside the order was sometimes reversed; the pars urbana cortile which one entered from the main street entrance was a peristyle. The atrium was then buried in the depths of the house, often near a portico (an outwards-looking colonnade on one or more outside walls) with a view of the landscape. Contents The atrium often contained a small chapel to the ancestral spirits (lararium). The household safe (arca) was also kept in the atrium; it contained family treasures and important documents. The room might contain portraits of ancestors, or a bust of the master of the house. In wealthier houses, furniture included an oblong marble cartibulum (table), supported by trapezophoros pedestals depicting mythological creatures like winged griffins. A puteal, a low cylindrical covered wellhead through which water could be drawn from the cistern below, was often present. There would also be works of art, especially statuary, which was set beside the impluvium, on tables, in niches, on walls. etc. For night, there might be oil-lamp-stands. Curtains or partitions might close off the tablinum; alae might also have been curtained at times. Interior doorways might have doors or curtains. Compluvium The roof is framed so as to leave an open space in the center, known as the compluvium. The rain from the roof was usually collected in gutters around the compluvium, and discharged thence into the impluvium. The roof around the compluvium was edged with a row of highly ornamented tiles, called antefixes, on which a mask or some other figure was moulded. At the corners there were usually spouts, in the form of lions' or dogs' heads, or any fantastical device which the architect might fancy. The spouts carried the rain-water clear out into the impluvium, rather than letting it run down the walls and pillars, which