Gallia Lugdunensis on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Domus of the Place Epars

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

AUTRICUM (Chartres, France)

Garden

Domus of the Place Epars

Keywords

Garden Description

A large reception room of 73 square meters in the northwest corner was heated by a hypocaust under the floor. In this room was a grand composition depicting a procession of people. Next to this room was a square room that looked out down the long axis of the garden that filled the 247 square meter rectangular (19 x 13 m) rectangle of open area. The Corinthian colonnade of the garden was found collapsed towards the outside. Elegant Corinthian capitals of limestone and fragments of column bases of attic type with traces of tinted whitewash and red accents were found during the excavations.

Maps

None Available

Plans

LUG_Fig. 1: Chartres, Domus of the Place des Epars, from CAG.

Images

None Available

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

:A. Ollagnier, D. Joly, L'Eure-et-Loir, CAG p. 137-139, plan p. 138 (with bibliography of previous works). (worldcat)

Places

House of the Masks (Maison aux Masques)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

LUGDUNUM (Lyon, France)

Garden

House of the Masks (Maison aux Masques)

Keywords

Garden Description

The two known wings of the house were organized around a peristyle (8x 12 m), probably in a U, though the west wall has not been found but has been drawn on the accompanying plan by extension of wall further south. Two of the three galleries were open. The open area of the peristyle court was ornamented by a rectangular pool (5.4 x 2.6 m) covered with opus signinum both inside and outside; it had a drain in the northeast corner. The surface of the water in the pool would have been above the level of pounded earth floor of the courtyard. Porticoes 2.8 meters wide around three sides of the courtyard also had pounded earth floors; the stylobate was blocks of limestone while the columns were of circular brick covered with plaster painted red in the lower part, white in the upper, and touched with green highlights. The porticoes were terminated at the west end by engaged columns. The painted plaster is preserved in place in the southwest corner of the peristyle. A red plinth sets off tuffs of green foliage; above are black panels bordered with decorative strings. At a later phase, a wall was built between the last two columns of the of the portico; in the space thus created were found bases for shelves. Near the peristyle were found little theatrical masks in terra cotta which had served as oscilla. An ostrich egg, an exotic import, was perhaps also hung in the peristyle. Onto the south portico opened a reception room [B 20] (8.6 x 6.2 m) rhythmically divided by four pilasters and two columns. Onto the east portico opened an even larger room [B 12] (10.5 x 6.5 m). Both reception rooms had concrete floors with limestone accents. There were also two small courtyards --one in the south wing, one in the east --both indicated on the plan.

Maps

Not Available

Plans

Not Available

Images

perspective drawing of porticoes

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

A. Desbat, Les fouilles de la rue des Farges à Lyon, Groupe lyonnais de recherche en archéologie gallo-romaine, Lyon, 1984, p. 45-49 (worldcat)
A. Desbat, Jadis, rue des Farges, archéologie d'un quartier de Lyon antique, exposition au Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine de Lyon, 1985. (worldcat)

Places

House on the Place des Halles (La maison des Halles)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

-- missing in Pleiades --

Sublocation Description

On the left bank of the Sarthe, where it is joined by the Isaac creek, the Roman town was the successor to a Celtic oppidum. A wall of the late empire enclosed nine hectares.

Garden

House on the Place des Halles (La maison des Halles)

Keywords

Garden Description

LUG 6.1.1: Le Mans. House on the Place des Halles. From CAG.

This domus was on the Place des Halles, the former site of the covered market place. It was excavated in 1987-88 south of the principal street. In a part of the ancient city inhabited since the first century, the house occupied a surface (33 x 54 m) of 1782 square meters. Two-story wings of the house surround on three sides a courtyard [1] that may have been a garden. The residential wing, to the south, of careful construction, had four principal rooms with floors of smooth concrete. The existence of a second court farther south, on the other façade of the residential wing has been supposed, but its nature is unknown.

Plans

Restored section of the entire domus by P. André

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

Service Régional de l'Archéologie des Pays de la Loire, La Sarthe, 72, CAG p. 318-319, plan p. 318. (worldcat)

Places

House on the rue de la Harpe (Domus rue de la Harpe)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Garden

House on the Place des Halles (La maison des Halles)

Keywords

Garden Description

Excavations of a 1400 square meter site in 1989 at 45 rue de la Harpe partially uncovered five habitations of the southern quarter of the city. They were occupied between the first and third century until a final destruction around 275-280. Among them, one had a peristyle [1] of which three porticos are know; it was quite likely planted. The same house had another paved court with a fountain [2]. Further south, the corner of another courtyard with porticos (4 x 3 columns) was found.

Maps

None Available

Plans

Reconstruction of the four house spaces that make up House on the Rue de la Harpe.

Images

None Available

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

D. CLIQUET, L'Eure, 27, CAG p.136-137, restitution p.136. (worldcat)

Places

House with Pilasters (Clos du Verbe Incarné)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

LUGDUNUM (Lyon, France)

Garden

House with Pilasters (Clos du Verbe Incarné)

Keywords

Garden Description

The insula VII of the Clos du Verbe Incarné, excavated from 1977 to 1987, lies on the western slope of a little dip (71 x 34 m) in the upper town, about 160 meters northwest of the center of the top of the theater. In this insula, begun between 40 and 20 BC, one can follow the evolution of this quarter up to the end of the third century. To the north, the insula was bordered by the street called du Capitol and to the west by the street called de Cybèle. The subdivision of the insula was put in place from 15-10 BC. The house occupied 400 square meters, and was organized on an italic plan around a traditional atrium followed by a tablinum[1]. The house of seven or eight rooms did not have a peristyle but did, no doubt, include a hortus[2] (15 x 5 m) at the back of the lot.

The house was originally constructed of adobe on a floor and gutter of granite masonry. Later, in Tibero-Claudian times, a wooden section was added, which facilitated the creation of an upper story on the western part, which also included on the ground level some isolated shops occupying 100 square meters. The neighbor to the north was another small, 315-square-meter house, the Domus with the Mosaic Emblema, which was organized around a four-column atrium, but had no garden. In fact, the House with Pilasters was the only one in the insula to have, without doubt, a little green space. In the southern part of the insula, there were three combinations of house and shop, and another small, 310-square-meter house called the Domus with Lararium.

LUG 1. 1. House with Pilasters. On the rectangle surrounding the word "Garden?" in the upper left corner is the "House with Pilasters." Source, Maison 1996, p.134.

Plans

LUG 1. 1. House with Pilasters. On the rectangle surrounding the word "Garden?" in the upper left corner is the "House with Pilasters."

Credit: Maison 1996, p.134.

Images

None Available

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

E. Delaval, "Un îlot d'habitations romaines à Lyon (Ier siècle av.-IIIe siècle ap.J.C.),Clos du Verbe Incarné,colline de Fourvière," Actes du Ier Congrès Méditerranéen d'ethnologie historique, Lisbonne 4-8 nov. 1991,in Mediterraneo, 4, 1994, p.203-229.
E. Delaval,"Espace urbain et habitat privé à Lyon,un îlot de la ville haute au cœur d'une opération d'urbanisme au milieu du Ier siècle," in Maison 1996, t.I,p. 128-37, planp.134.

Places

Richebourg (Yvelines) villa de

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

AUTRICUM (Chartres, France)

Garden

Richebourg (Yvelines) villa de

Keywords

Garden Description

Though the site has an area of 12 or 13 hectares, only one hectare has been excavated, the residential and agricultural part. Two groups of buildings frame a large garden on a slightly trapezoidal, walled area. To the north was the residence; to the south, the utility buildings, including a silo; while to the east, within its own walls, was the farmyard also with several buildings.

The pars urbana at the north end opened towards the south on a large space [1] developed as a garden. The southern façade was a portico stretching between rooms extending forward from either end of the main house. Along this façade [2], excavations have shown a band of gravel on a masonry base bordered by posts. Perhaps these posts supported a trellis along this façade. Against the stylobate of the portico, several bases of amphorae were discovered, doubtless as pots for plants that perhaps climbed on the trellis. A fragment of a white marble disk could be, according to Y. Barat, the only remains of an oscillum that once hung in the gallery.

The garden was divided into quadrants by two perpendicular roads, once paved with stone, though the stones were long ago carried off. The east-west road divides the garden into two equal parts; it starts in the west from a square entrance porch outside the wall not shown on the plan, then passes through a simple door pierced in the wall and framed by two vertical wooden braces. The other road [4] crosses the garden on the central axis of the residential part in the north, connecting the entry of its southern gallery to the utility building at the southern end of the garden. Symmetrically placed postholes on either side of these two roads indicate perhaps the presence of a pergola or bower. A stone basin was found at the intersection of these two roads. Along the west enclosing wall, other postholes with wedging material may indicate two other pergolas.

These roads mark off four plots of garden land. Dark brown layers indicate that they once received regular manuring and additions of wood ash, fragments of ceramic, shells of oysters and mussels, and pulverized mortar. The plan of the plots is marked out by an orthogonal network of horticultural pots, installed at intervals of 4 meters in each direction. Of the 217 of these pots found, more than 100 were in place. Aside from several bottoms of amphorae, the pots were of the classic flowerpot type, a truncated cone, and they all had a hole and in the bottom and three in the side, near the bottom. A single example had four of these lateral holes. There were five different types all with a top diameter of 8 to 12 centimeters and 9 to 13 centimeters high.

The distribution of each size pot has been carefully analyzed. Barat reports that two of the types were used in a consistent way. Type C, dated at the end of Antonine or beginning of the Severine period, was used only in the northern half of the garden. Type E, dated from the Claudian period, was found only along the post holes of the presumed pergola and would have been for climbing plants such as roses or ivy. (Only these two types could be dated with relative certainty.) In several cases, Barat felt that a grouping of two or three types of pots might simply indicate planting at different times in the same place.

On its northern side, the villa had another façade gallery [6], perhaps an ambulation, opening onto the fields. It was almost 44 meters long and has Tuscan and Corinthian columns. To the west, it was terminated by an apse; and to the east, by a cistern. Baths [7] were installed in the east wing. Next to the house, south of the baths, were several flagstones covered by a layer of garden soil, perhaps marking a flowerbed [8] over a drainage bed composed of fragments of tiles. To the south, six pits [9], 20 to 40 centimeters in diameter and 20 centimeters deep, not in the pattern of the other pots, were filled with an ochre-colored silt. Finally, north of the baths, protected by the extension of the gallery of the north façade, was found a group of five little negative casts of stumps, still with traces of the roots.

Near the southwest corner of the villa, a stone masonry slab [5] of irregular plan but generally U shaped is considered a possible open-air triclinium. It was later damaged by the erection of a building held up by posts.

Pollen analyses have yielded some results, although the pollens were damaged and oxidized by the dry environment. Samples of garden soil were both from the pots and from outside them. Several of the species identified, such as plantain, argue for a mown lawn. The tree species indicate the presence of conifers – cedars, larches and spruces (cedrus, larix, picea). An oleaceae (determined by D. Marguerie) poses problems of interpretation. Was it a lilac or an olive? In either case, it is an imported species. The lilac would come from the northeast of the Balkans; the olive, from the Mediterranean. Though the lilac might seem more probable on the basis of current plantings, it is noteworthy that Pliny reports that the olive was acclimated in central Gaul (H.N. V 1-2, XVII, 47-48). The genus Prunus appeared several times, thus confirming the results of charcoal analysis (anthracology) but without determination of the species – wild cherry or domestic cherry. Ivy is also present, perhaps to cover the pergolas.

Maps

None Available

Plans

Plan 1: Fig 4 - Plan of the Athenian Gardens of Richebourg

Images

Plan 1: Bird's Eye Perspective of the Garden

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

Y. Barat, La villa gallo-romaine de Richebourg (Yvelines) in Revue Archéologique du Centre de la France, 38, 1999, p. 117-67, plans p. 122, jardin p.140. (worldcat)
Y Barat, D. Morize, Les pots d'horticulture dans le monde antique et les jardins de la villa de Richebourg (Yvelines), in SFECAG, Actes du colloque de Fribourg, 1999, p. 213-36.
Y. Barat, La recherche archéologique des jardins antiques in Les nouvelles de l'archéologie 83-84, 2001, p. 56-62, not. P. 58-59.
G. Coulon, J.C. Golvin, Voyage en Gaule romaine, Actes sud Errance, Arles-Paris, 2002, p.121-3, restitution p. 122-3. (worldcat)
Y. Barat and D. Morize, L'archéologie des jardins antiques: le cas de la pars urbana de la villa de Richebourg (Yvelines) in Actualité de la Recherche en Histoire et Archéologie agraires, Annales Littéraires de L'Université de Franche-Comté, 764, Besançon, 2003. (worldcat)

Places

Roman Villa

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

Garden

Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer (Seine-Maritime) Roman Villa

Keywords

Garden Description

Following the fortuitous discovery of mosaics in 1820, the site of a large Roman villa was excavated from 1821 to 1830 by M. Solicoffre, then from 1840 to 1848 by P. J. Féret, and again in 1876 by Abbé Loth. The ruins were then abandoned, and our knowledge of them comes entirely from the very uneven documentation of these early explorations. From our perspective, however, what is noteworthy about this literature is not its inadequacy by modern standards but the considerable interest it shows in plants and gardens.

The residential part shows a certain degree of luxury with painted plaster, marble plates, stuccos, and numerous heated rooms. The pars urbana was quadrilateral and was unearthed on more than 60 by 45 meters. In the center was a court [A] of about 25 meters square that was perhaps developed as a garden. In 1843, it was noted that this court was "not yet excavated." It is not clear whether or not it ever was. Around it were arranged a series of rooms. One large room [HH] (12 x 5 m) with a semicircular apse opened off the southeast corner of the court and must have been a reception room. The central space of the court was apparently bordered on the north, west, and south sides by porticos of unequal width. The bases of the columns and two shafts were found. To the east was found a large area (22.5 x 4.5 m) entirely covered in mosaic. To the north of the villa was a rectangular space [O] that could have been a courtyard or garden. It was bounded on the north by a gallery nearly 25 meters long and heated by hypocausts for its entire length. Semicircular apses extended from the east end and from the north side. Further constructions not excavated extended to the northeast.

Eighty meters to the west, below the villa and parallel to its west side was a belvedere-promenade. This structure (3.1 x 47.6 m) extended in a north-south direction with apses at each end. On the east side was a large room (11.49 x 5.92 m) terminated by an apse on the east and opening onto the promenade and the view to the west. The levels marked on the map of the site imply that this room was 1.48 meters above the promenade, but such a difference is hard to believe. According to Féret, the promenade was paved with mosaic; according to W. Martin, with brick. The semicircular part of the room was ornamented with a "delicious mosaic" of fruits and grapes. The wall of this apse survived up to a height of 10 to 15 centimeters and preserved the traces of a beautiful mosaic (now lost) "in enamel cubes," that is, smalti. About 1.4 meters west of the apse, in the centerline of this room, was found a masonry mass (1.71 x 1.86 m) considered by some as the base for a statue and by others as the support for a masonry table. Féret called this room an excedra; W. Martin interpreted it as a summer triclinium enjoying a great view of the sea.

The excavators also note at about 55 meters northeast of the promenade a small, square structure that could have been a little temple or shrine. They mention also two springs, one of which had a square basin and was still in use in 1876 by the inhabitants. The waters of the spring on the plateau were channeled by pipes of elm, some of which were discovered: "the trunk of an elm, 1.80 meters long, with its bark still on and hollowed out in the middle by a drill, carried water to feed the baths." It was found in place along with several others and was then deposited in the museum of antiquities in Rouen.

Maps

None Available

Plans

Detailed Plan of Villa at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer.

Plan drawings of the Villa, Temple, and Promenade at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer.

Images

None Available

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

P.J. Féret, Lettre adressée à M. de Caumont sur les fouilles pratiquées à Sainte-Marguerite sur Mer près Dieppe in Bulletin Monumental 9, 1843, p. 92-97.
Ch.W. Martin, Note sur les fouilles exécutées en 1876 sur l'emplacement de la station romaine de Ste-Marguerite-sur-Mer (Seine inférieure), in Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, 1861, p. 319-326. (worldcat)
abbé J. Loth, Fouilles de Ste-Marguerite-sur-Mer, in Bulletin de la Commission des antiquités de la Seine-Inférieure, Rouen, 1870, p. 68-75. (worldcat)
<! -- In the process of being finalized: J.P. Darmon, Recueil "Erin Mckay" emckay2@towson.eduise II, 5???, 1994 (ou 5 ???), n°:894-902, p.111-114; ???, in CAG Seine-maritime; 76, 20???, p. 497-500 (with detailed bibliography). -->

Places

Vaise - House with the Xenia

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

LUGDUNUM (Lyon, France)

Garden

House with Pilasters (Clos du Verbe Incarné)

Keywords

Garden Description

Xenia were gifts of game, fish, poultry, fruits or vegetables given by a host to a guest to be cooked to the guest's liking. Here, the name comes from the discovery of a pinax (a painted ceramic tablet) showing xenia. This house was discovered during excavation of the southern sector of the Saint-Pierre land management zone (ZAC) in a suburban quarter of Lyon. The building –one hesitates whether to call it a suburban villa or a domus–extends over 630 square meters. There are traces of occupation of the site in Augustan times, but the house (29 x 24 m) was built in the reign of Tiberius. It is organized in two perpendicular wings around a courtyard with porticos in a U. The galleries are 3.5 meters wide. In this first phase, nine rooms were placed around the court.

The limit of the court on the west is not certain [phase II, 1]. As a hypothesis, an original court of 17.74 meters by 16.40 meters –nearly square but with an extra, sixth, span on the west –has been proposed. The columns, with a maximum diameter of 37 centimeters, were made of semi-circular bricks cemented and covered with white plaster. They rested on limestone bases roughly squared off. A little later, around the end of the reign of Claudius, the house underwent several changes. Room [10] was built, which enlarged the eastern wing. A new room [3] was created, important enough in the eyes of the proprietor to sacrifice part of one of the porticos to fit it in. In the same period, the spaces between the columns were partly closed, while the courtyard was connected to a water supply network. The paintings were freshened up, and the house doubtless had a second floor. In this last phase, however, the house did not last long. It was destroyed at the beginning of the reign of Vespasian, and the site then remained vacant at least until the middle of the fourth century and probably into the fifth. In this final, Claudian phase, the courtyard represented more than 57 percent of the area. It enjoyed running water, which was not present in the houses of the Verbe incarnéquarter in Lugdunumat the same period. A wooden pipe, of which only the negative imprint can be seen, crossed the courtyard and porticos obliquely. A drain from room [5] was connected to it. The basin of a fountain that has disappeared was placed on the axis of room [9]; it was definitely there in the second phase and possibly in the first, though that has not been demonstrated.

The ground of the central part of the courtyard was topsoil and earth coming from under the porticos. Three samples have been studied palynolocially. The results leave no doubt that a garden grew in the center. We quote the abstract of the publication. "The pollen content is relatively poor, and the counts have been made for each sample separately. The spectrum of pollens includes a rather wide diversity of herbaceous plants of which certain families can include ornamental plants such as the tubuliflorous composites and the Caryophyllaceae (pink family). Ruderal plants, that is, those that grow in sites much transformed by man such as clearings or waste places near habitations, predominate: Chenopodiaceae (such as spinach, beets and their relatives –Tr.), gramineous plants, and the following genera: nettles, arnois (artemesia, tarragon –Tr.), and plantain (Plantago lanceolata). This last is often associated with the cultivation of cereals. There were also species of ferns. Walnuts (Juglans) and grapes (Vitis) may have been cultivated around the site. Finally, pine (Pinus) is relatively well represented, but the very high rate of pollenization of the pine and its capacity for dispersion of its pollens often lead to an over-representation of these species. Thus, this courtyard could have been cultivated as an ornamental garden." (E. Delaval et al., p. 89).

Maps

None Available

Plans

None Available

Images

None Available

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

E. Delaval, C. Bellon, J. Chastel, E. Plassot, L. Tranoy, Vaise, un quartier de Lyon antique, Document d'archéologie en Rhône-Alpes n° 5, Lyon, 1995. E. Plassot, Le quartier Saint-Pierre, la maison aux xenia, p. 71-129. (worldcat)

Places

Villa de Châtillon-sur-Seiche

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

Garden

Villa de Châtillon-sur-Seiche

Keywords

Garden Description

Six kilometers south of Rennes, this village with medieval churches and pleasant promenades along the banks of the Seiche must once have been the site of castellum from which the name Châtillon derives. The fort was probably on a mound a few hundred meters southwest of the ancient farm and villa described here.

The evolution of this agricultural site can be followed from the period immediately following the Roman conquest up to its destruction at the end of the fourth century. The site lies 0.9 kilometers east of the center of the cloverleaf intersection of N 137 with D 34 in the Guyomerais area on the west side of Noyal-Châtillon-sur-Seiche. Rue des Potiers cuts through the site, with the pars urbana on the north and the smaller pars rustica on the south. The Rue de Condate bounds the area on the east. Known since 1904, the four-hectare site was excavated by Alain Provost between 1984 and 1988 prior to development of a residential subdivision.

From a period immediately following the Roman occupation (from 20 BC to about 40 AD) date a stone enclosure for animals, some agricultural walls, and remnants of a simple barn.

A modest farmhouse (Phase 1) was built about A.D 30. To the south extended a courtyard (65 x 70 m), delimited by a trench, which may have had a garden. Outbuildings included a forge, a workshop, and three small homes with fireplaces.

About AD 80, the farmhouse was razed to make room for the first villa (Phase 2).Built of small stones, this villa consisted of five rooms in a line extending 26.5 meters along the north side of a gallery. A wall replaced the trench delimiting the courtyard. Outbuildings included a barn, a mill, and a chalk oven, in addition to the forge and homes.

Then, somewhere around 180, residential structures were attached to the outside of the wall on the east side of the courtyard (Phase 3). They may have been the residence of the villicus. A little to the south and also outside the courtyard was built a square fanum, a type of temple thought to be of Celtic origin and consisting of a tower in a courtyard surrounded by a gallery.

In the first half of the third century, the complex reached it apogee (Phase 4) with an enclosed courtyard of some 3000 square meters with a fountain in the north-south axis of the main reception room of the north wing.

It was possible to excavate only the eastern half and (on the south side of Rue des Potiers) the whole of the wall which closed the south side of the courtyard. At its southwest corner, this wall turned north at exactly the point required to fit a conceptual restoration of the west side as symmetric to the east with the fountain on the axis of symmetry. Along three sides of the courtyard (excluding the south) ran galleries with wooden supports on the courtyard side and a line of rooms on the outside. On the east side, one room was heated by hypocausts and one was a wine cellar. Since an access road was found on the east, the entrance to the courtyard was presumably on the east side of the forecourt on the south, in an area destroyed in the construction of Rue des Potiers.

The villa showed a certain level of refinement in decor. The fountain, lined with marble with decorative moulding, was formed by two masonry squares, one within the other. A central pedestal probably supported a water jet and possibly a statue. A few fragments of marble statuary were found, including the abdomen and buttocks of what may have been a cupid; but precise original locations could not be determined. Though there is no evidence of mosaics, wall painting with imitations of marble and porphyry was employed, as were some high-quality building materials such as slate and schist. Numerous fragments of bronze plumbing were found, along with collars for attaching metal pipes to wooden tubes and sections of pipe to carry away the waste water.

At the end of the third century, the pars urbana was abandonned, then partially re-occupied around 320-330 in the age of Constantine. Final total abandonment came at the end of the fourth century.

Was there a garden? Within the courtyard, there is no direct evidence of planting, but neither is there evidence of a hard surface that would preclude a garden, except that between the north gallery and the fountain there seems to have been a passage way. Outside the courtyard, northeast of the supposed house of the villicus, there were parallel trenches interpreted by the excavator as a garden zone (F on the Phase 4 plan).

A study of pollens and sediments below the levels of the Gallo-Roman villa in a paleosol dated to the late first century BC or early first century AD has revealed the environment of the farm at that time. It shows a soil already worked and gardened by man and the presence of pollens of cereals. The countryside, already totally or partially cleared combined various trees – pine, hazel, oak, holly and linden – with ferns and herbaceous plants, especially grasses and plantains characteristic of prairies and grasslands. A comparison with the quantities of pollens found in the soils of the villa in the second and third centuries shows relative stability of the percentages, as shown in figure 5. While interesting, these findings describe the environment rather than the gardens themselves.

Maps

A Map of Land Development Over Time.

Plans

Plans of Land Development Over Time.

Images

The Fountain Bassin.

Reconstructed cut of the Fountain Bassin.

Dates

Unspecified

Bibliography

Alain Provost, "La villa gallo-romaine de Chatillon-sur-Seiche," in the catalog of the exposition Nos ancêtres les Riedones, Musée de Bretagne- Eco-musée du pays de Rennes, Rennes, 20 juin, 31 déc. 1990, p. 10-31 (worldcat)
Gilles Leroux, Alain Provost, CAG- Ille-et-vilaine (35), p. 270-274. (worldcat)

Places

Villa des Tuillières

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Location

SELONGEY (Côte d'Or, France)

Garden

Villa des Tuillières

Keywords

Garden Description

The villa des Tuillières near Selongey was on a Roman road connecting Lyon and Trier. The villa was detected by aerial photography in 1973 and almost completely excavated by the private Association Archéologique de Fontaine-Française in advance of the construction of the motorway A 26/31 Langres – Dijon between 1976 and 1988.

At Selongey, the first Roman evidence was a timber-framed building with clay walls. It can be dated to Claudian or Neronian times. The construction type of this 'proto-villa' continued well-known Late Celtic traditions. Some small, typical Roman stone buildings were erected during Flavian times. In the second century AD, under Hadrian or Antoninus, these first structures were razed to the ground and the complex was re-organized by the construction of a small main building and a huge isolated building for agricultural purposes. The huge stone-built villa complex, with its strict axial arrangement of all buildings around a central courtyard of 1.5 hectares, was constructed at the beginning of the third century AD under the reign of Severus.

During the first half of the 3rd century AD the complex of the villa comprised several buildings, which were arranged around a central courtyard (Fig. 1). The north-western wing of the villa complex was formed by the main building (Fig. 1, B) and the thermae in its classical form (Fig. 1, C) while buildings for agriculture (Fig. 1, A and D) and Iron working activities (Fig. 1, E) were arranged at the other sides of the courtyard. The main part of the villa opened with a long porticus south-east to the courtyard (Fig. 1, B No. 5). At both ends of the porticus small pavilions formed the angles of the main building (Fig. 1 B no. 1). The entrance was situated in the center of the porticus; it gave access to a central hall (Fig. 2, VIII) and to the representative rooms such as the main building which were heated by a hypocaust. The rooms for domestic activities such as the kitchen and service rooms were located to the back.

Two cellars under the rooms X and XIII were used for storage purposes. The cellar under room X yielded the most important archaeological objects of the villa, about 2600 fragments of burnt ivory objects. They made it possible to reconstruct a wooden casket with several application made from ivory. Cellar X obviously contained the treasury of the villa; cellar XIII, food for human alimentation.

The villa was destroyed during the barbarian invasion into Gaul in 256-8 AD, which followed the main Roman roads. The most recent coin found in the villa was an antoninianus of Valerius, coined in Rome AD 254. Because the rescue excavation focused mainly on the building structures, and the open space of the inner courtyard was not completely excavated, the direct garden evidence is faint. Herb gardens and fruit tree gardens can be assumed near the back of the main building. The presence of gardens is indicated by the rich archaeobotanical evidence. The destruction of the villa by fire preserved plant remains. Archaeobotanical analysis of the plant material revealed huge amounts of carbonized cereals and grape pips from building D. The assemblage is dominated by naked wheat (Triticum aestivum s.l./durum/turgidum), hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) and pips of cultivated grape (Vitis vinifera vinifera). The botanical assemblages from building D contained thousands of grape pips, but also fragmented Vitis stalks and carbonized underdeveloped complete grapes. A possible explanation is that the agricultural building D of the villa complex was not only used to dry and store cereal grain, but also contained a wine pressing area (Fig. 1 D indicated in grey, Fig. 2, rooms II-XII). Archaeobotanical evidence from the villa 'des Tuillières' at Selongey, Côte d'Or, and from the villa 'Tête de Fer' near Avallon also point clearly to local viticulture during the third century AD.

Furthermore, there is evidence of lentil (Lens culinaris) and broad bean (Vicia faba), which were most probably cultivated either in the gardens of the villa or on small fields in the vicinity. Carbonized scales from walnuts and uncarbonized fruit stones from peach (Prunus persica) and damson (Prunus insititia) indicate cultivation of fruit trees in the gardens while hazel (Corylus avellana) and sloe (Prunus spinosa) were most probably fruits collected from the wild.

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Bibliography

J.C. Beal with the collaboration of d'A. et A. Ruellet, La resserre de Selongey (Côte d'Or): une collection d'objets de bois et d'ivoire dans la villa des Tuillières,» Revue Archéologique de l'Est xx
E. Gauthier, M. Joly, « Vignoble et viticulture dans le centre-est de la Gaule au Ier siècle « .in: F. Favory/A. Vignot (eds.), Actualités de la Recherche en Histoire et Archéologie agraires. Actes du colloque international AGER V, Besançon 2000.
Collection Annales Littéraires No. 764, Série Environnement, sociétés et archéologie 5(2003) :191-208, Besançon;
A. Olivier, A. Ruellet, « Selongey, « La villa » In: Archéologie de Bourgogne. La Côte d'Or » Dijon, Musée Archéologique/Errance, Paris, 1990, pp. 77-78; A. Ruellet, « La villa des Tuillières à Selongey, » in L'autoroute au pays des Lingons. Archéologie et autoroute A31. Sociétés des autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône, Dijon, 1989, pp. 34-39: A. and A. Ruellet, J.-C. Beal, « La villa de Selongey. » in Il était une fois la Côte d'Or. 20 ans de recherches archéologiques [exhibition catalogue Dijon, Musée archéologique], Paris, pp. 95-104; J. Wiethold, "'How to trace the 'Romanisation' of central Gaule by archaeobotanical analysis?" in F. Favory/A. Vignot (eds.), Actualités de la Recherche en Histoire et Archéologie agraires. Actes du colloque international AGER V, Besançon 2000. Collection Annales Littéraires No. 764, Série Environnement, sociétés et archéologie 5(2003) : 269-282.
Ch.W. Martin, Note sur les fouilles exécutées en 1876 sur l'emplacement de la station romaine de Ste-Marguerite-sur-Mer (Seine inférieure), in Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, 1861, p. 319-326. (worldcat)
abbé J. Loth, Fouilles de Ste-Marguerite-sur-Mer, in Bulletin de la Commission des antiquités de la Seine-Inférieure, Rouen, 1870, p. 68-75. (worldcat)
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