UBC Excavations of the Roman Villa at Gerace, Sicily: Results of the 2013 Season
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8%&([FDYDWLRQVRIWKH5RPDQ9LOODDW*HUDFH6LFLO\ 5HVXOWVRIWKH6HDVRQ 5-$:LOVRQ Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada, Volume 12, Number 2, 2012, LVI -- Series III, pp. 175-230 (Article) 3XEOLVKHGE\8QLYHUVLW\RI7RURQWR3UHVV For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mou/summary/v1012/1012.2.wilson.html Access provided by University of British Columbia Library (17 Sep 2015 21:18 GMT) Mouseion, Series III, Vol. 12 (2012) 175–230 © 2015 Mouseion (published in 2015) UBC Excavations of the Roman Villa at Gerace, Sicily: Results of the 2013 Season R.J.A. Wilson Abstract/Résumé The paper describes results from UBC excavations at the Roman villa of Gerace, Sicily, in 2013. Geophysical survey in 2012 demonstrated that some half a dozen further structures once existed here, in addition to the small villa-like building partially inves- tigated by others in 1994 and 2007. In 2013 excavation concentrated on rooms 1 and 2 of the latter residence. The former, provided with a bench, a work-top and an earth floor, may have been a kitchen. Room 2 had a white mortar floor and plastered walls. A small portion of mosaic-paved corridor outside these rooms was also investigated. The building was erected not before ca. ad 370 and perished in a fire in the second half of the fifth century. Immediately to the east a building suggested by geophysics to have been some 50 m long was trial-trenched. The part excavated was paved with an intact floor of stone flags. The paving extended up to 2.20 m beyond the structure’s east and west exterior walls, possibly to ensure it was kept dry. It may have been the estate gra- nary or storebuilding. Probably built in the first half of the fourth century, replacing an earlier structure below, it had a short life: it collapsed dramatically, perhaps in the earthquake of ad 361/363, and was never rebuilt. A heated room, possibly belonging to a bath-suite in the villa-like building, was found in the west end of the trench; part of the granary’s roof collapse and west wall were removed to provide space for the later structure’s stoke-hole. Among the finds were 99 stamps on roof tiles from the villa-like building. Ten dies were recorded, eight of them varieties of the name Philippianus, who may have been the owner of the Gerace estate in the later fourth century. Cet article présente les résultats des fouilles menées en 2013 par l’UBC à la villa romaine de Gerace en Sicile. Une prospection géophysique avait révélé en 2012 l’existence de près d’une demi-douzaine de structures, en plus du petit bâtiment de style villa, par ailleurs déjà partiellement exploré en 1994 et 2007. En 2013, les fouilles de ce bâtiment se sont concentrées sur les chambres 1 et 2. La première, munie d’un banc, d’un plan de travail et d’un plancher en terre battue, pourrait avoir été une cuisine. La deuxième possédait un plancher en mortier blanc et des murs recouverts de plâtre. Une por- tion du corridor pavé de mosaïques à l’extérieur des chambres a également été exa- minée. L’édifice fut construit au plus tôt en 370 après J. C. et détruit par les flammes durant la seconde moitié du Ve siècle. Immédiatement à l’est, une structure, évaluée à 50 m de long selon l’examen géophysique, a fait l’objet d’un sondage par tranchée, qui a révélé un pavement intact de dalles en pierre. Ce pavement se prolongeait jusqu’à 2,2 m au-delà des murs extérieurs à l’ouest et à l’est du bâtiment, dans un but probable 175 R.J.A. Wilson de régulation de l’humidité. Il pourrait s’agir du grenier à grain ou de l’entrepôt du domaine. Construit vraisemblablement durant la première moitié du IVe siècle, en remplacement d’une structure antérieure sous-jacente, il fut en usage peu longtemps ; il s’effondra brutalement, peut-être lors du tremblement de terre de 361-363 après J. C., et ne fut jamais reconstruit. Une salle chauffante, qui devait jouxter la salle de bain de la villa, a été découverte à l’extrémité occidentale de la tranchée ; une partie du toit du grenier effondré et du mur occidental avaient été retirées pour faire place au foyer de la chaufferie (praefurnium) de cette pièce. Parmi les découvertes figuraient 99 tuiles de toit provenant de l’habitation principale et marquées d’étampes, pour un total de dix coins, dont huit montraient des variantes du nom de Philippianus, probable pro- priétaire du domaine de Gerace à la fin du IVe siècle. Introduction Contrada Gerace lies in the heart of Sicily in well-watered rolling country- side ten km due south of Enna. It is situated just south and east of Strada Provinciale 78, which leads towards Barrafranca, a further 17 km by road to the south-west. The site lies 15 km (as the crow flies) north-west of Sicily’s most famous late Roman villa, that in contrada Casale near Piazza Armerina (fig. 1). Contrada Gerace takes its name from the highest peak in the district, Figure 1. Location map of Gerace, also showing the position of other major fourth-century villas in Sicily Map drawn by Eric Leinberger (Vancouver) 176 UBC Excavations at Gerace, 2013 Figure 2. Gerace, topographical survey, showing the location of Areas A and B. G1 and G2 represent the area of trenches dug in 2000 by Dott. Lorenzo Guzzardi. The aqueduct marked on the plan is modern, part of the water supply built to serve the city of Caltanissetta Map prepared by Alan Weston (BC Institute of Technology, Vancouver) Monte Gerace, which rises to a height of 775 m about 500 m north-east of the area of archaeological interest. The latter, which covers about 3 ha, sits in a sheltered location at around 650 m above sea level (fig. 2), backed to the north and east by an amphitheatre of low hills but opening up to the west and south, where the site enjoys an extensive panorama over the neighbour- ing countryside (fig. 3). Today this comprises rich farming land, engaged in polyculture—in addition to grain, there are vines, olives, vegetables, and numerous fruit trees, especially citrus and almonds. That a Roman villa existed in contrada Gerace was first brought to the attention of the local Soprintendenza alle antichità in 1994, when erosion of the sides of a water channel swollen with winter rains exposed a portion of a geometric polychrome mosaic pavement.1 Subsequent excavation by 1 The gully originally ran on the west side of the fence line running from near the north-east corner of fig. 2 in a south-westerly direction. Later, to protect the building 177 R.J.A. Wilson Figure 3. View looking south-west from the west side of Area A Photo by R.J.A. Wilson Dott.ssa Enza Cilia Platamone revealed a small building, designated Area A on fig. 2, consisting of an apsed room measuring 9 m x 6 m (6), four adjacent rooms to the west (1–4) and corridors of unequal widths on the south and the west sides (fig. 4). The plan was revealed by surface clearance of the top of the walls, but limited trenching also demonstrated that the west end of the south corridor and the apsed room were paved with geometric mosaics and that a small marble fountain was a feature in the apse of the latter.2 Dott.ssa Cilia Platamone suggested that the Gerace villa was not built earlier than the beginning of the third century, and suggested that it had been abandoned, perhaps because of flooding, at some later date, which she tentatively sug- gested might have occurred at the end of that century. Dott.ssa Cilia Plata- mone’s excavations also revealed that, overlying the ruins of the Roman villa, was a later building, consisting principally of a single rectangular room (5 on identified in 1994, it was diverted westwards near Point G2 on fig. 2 (labelled “ditch”). The following abbreviations of Sicilian provincia names are used below: AG: Agri- gento; CL: Caltanissetta; CT: Catania; EN: Enna; ME: Messina; PA: Palermo; RG: Ragusa. 2 Cilia Platamone 1996; 1997. Its existence was kindly indicated to me by Dott.ssa Enza Cilia Platamone (personal communication). For the wider context of the Enna region in the Roman period, see most recently Valbruzzi 2012. 178 UBC Excavations at Gerace, 2013 Figure 4. Plan of Area A (2007). The single-roomed structure at an oblique angle (“Room 5”) post-dates the destruction by fire of the main building in the second half of the fifth century— how much later is uncertain Plan courtesy of the Regione Siciliana, Assessorato Beni Culturali e Identità Siciliana, Soprintendenza di Enna fig. 2) with a portion of an adjacent paved yard to the south. Dott.ssa Cilia Platamone proposed that this structure may have belonged to somewhere between the tenth and the thirteenth century ad.3 A further excavation at Gerace was conducted by Dott. Lorenzo Guz- zardi, then of the Enna Soprintendenza, in 2000: this did not concern the part identified by Dott.ssa Cilia Platamone, but opened two new small areas some 60 m to the north (Area G1 and G2 on fig. 2). Further struc- tures interpreted as early medieval were revealed, with Roman layers beneath, but the excavation area was not large enough to yield detailed results.4 No further excavation was conducted at Gerace until 2007, when 3 On the proposed dating, Cilia Platamone 1996: 1687; 1997: 273–275.