Panel 8.23 – Rural buildings and villas in Italy


Organiser/Chair:

  • Günther Schörner (University Vienna)

Speakers:

Paper abstracts

1. Martin Tombrägel (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) / Michael Feige (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) / Paul Pasieka (Freie Universität Berlin)

The Villa Metro Anagnina
The Villa Metro Anagnina from the south-eastern Suburbium of Rome was built as a large agricultural estate in the 3rd century BC. The excavations undertaken since 2010 revealed the economic history of the villa until its destruction in the late 2nd century AD. Throughout the nearly 400 years of life the economic layout of the villa changed several times. After originally serving for the traditional production of wine and oil during the Middle-Republican period, the architectural modification and enlargement lead to a change of economic purpose. The change is visible after a complete destruction and rebuilding of the villa structures in early imperial times. Recent excavations (since 2016) have turned the attention to this latest villa phase and examined the question, whether the change can be identified as a transformation of the production type or if production ceased in the ongoing 1th and 2nd century AD.

 

2. Alessia Morigi and Riccardo Villicich (Università di Parma)

Pars fructuaria. Nuovi dati dagli scavi della Villa di Teodorico (Galeata, FC – Italia) sugli impianti artigianali e produttivi delle ville urbano-rustiche dell’appennino romagnolo
L’area archeologica della Villa di Teodorico, scavo storico dell’Istituto Archeologico Germanico fin dal 1942, successivamente dell’Università di Bologna e, più recentemente, dell’Università di Parma, consiste in un comprensorio di grande rilevanza storica, nell’immediato entroterra appenninico di Ravenna, molto noto per il suo ruolo di collegamento stradale tra pianura romagnola e Italia centrale e per la presenza dell’acquedotto costruito da Traiano per rifornire Ravenna.
Di questo privilegio è testimonianza diretta la villa, dove è stato messo in luce il padiglione di rappresentanza dai bellissimi mosaici di maestranza ravennate, che confermano il legame simbiotico fra l’edificio e la corte di Ravenna e l’esistenza di un complesso di dimensioni consistenti e di straordinario pregio e bellezza, all’altezza della residenza di caccia dell’imperatore Teodorico.
Della villa romana è stata riportata in luce gran parte della pars fructuaria. Le stratigrafie intatte hanno restituito una concreta testimonianza delle lavorazioni all’interno del settore produttivo della villa grazie al rinvenimento degli attrezzi per la lavorazione dei campi, dei contenitori e di una importante quantità di cereali. Ne deriva un quadro efficace delle attività agricole governate dalla villa e della sua economia di sussistenza. La villa esemplifica altre analoghe ricorrenze in area appenninica romagnola e a meglio delineare commerci e produzioni del comprensorio.

 

3. Gloriana Pace (University of Pisa) / Sara Lenzi (University of Florence)

Production from destruction: change of value of the recycled decoration. The Roman villa of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (San Gimignano, Siena - Italy)
The excavation carried out since 2005 at Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi, near San Gimignano (Siena, Italy) by the team of the Université catholique de Louvain, have unearthed a late antique villa, that covers an area of about 10.000 m2. This site, excavated only for a small part (about 3000 m2), presents various phases of occupation from the 3rd to the 7th century AD.
During the second half of the 5th century AD, the villa was gradually abandoned; however, most of the rooms were still standing.
Since the end of the 5th century AD, the site was reoccupied by a group of artisans who set up a series of workshops, carrying out the recuperation of both precious and raw materials from the villa’s structures; the villa lost a great part of its decoration, the elements of which were recycled in the productive processes implanted inside the rooms.
The site appears to be not only a real “mine” of reusable materials, but also a manufacturing centre of metal objects, glass, gold, marble and pottery, as evidenced by the presence of hobs and kilns.
The main focus of this paper will be the change of value of the recycled decoration and the interaction between craftspeople and buyers: the rich and huge furnishings of this Roman villa were destroyed, recycled and reused (marble for ceramic temper, glass tesserae for necklaces), thus shading light on different value given to this kind of more ancient products during the late Antiquity.