Marble Revetments

This paper presents the results of research conducted during the 2011 and 2012 campaigns in the Roman Villa del Casale. The purpose of this study was to catalogue the elements used for the marble or marble-like wall revetments in the Villa, which to date have not been studied. The first part covers the typological identification of the various elements conserved in situ and a recording of the presence of further marble elements which are clearly, from each piece's distinctive characteristics, reused pieces from earlier contexts later redeployed also like architectural wall revetments. A second part of the work involves making a quantitative calculation, based on the numberof pieces recorded for each of the varieties of marble identified. Finally, as a working hypotesis, we attempt a virtual recreation of some of the rooms in the Villa.

In 2005, the first remains of a Roman villa near the town of Noheda (province of Cuenca, Spain) were uncovered. Since then, the continued discovering of impressive well-preserved mosaics, paintings and polychrome stucco wall decoration as well as an extensive assemblage of marbles has demonstrated that a Roman villa of exceptional wealth and importance with a life-span extending to the 4th century AD existed there. Therefore, a comprehensive research project that includes, among other fronts, the detailed study of the marbles found at this site, has been launched. Even though it is still in progress, the richness and variety of the finds as well as their implications on the role this villa played in Late Roman Hispania is so extraordinary that are worth presenting at this conference.

Thus, this paper presents the first results on the study of the marbles assemblage that has been discovered so far. They basically come from the two areas of the site: the balnea and the tri-apsed room (Room 1), although fragments from the marbled stairs to access that large room from the portico and to access an octagonal adjacent room (Room 2) have been also included.

A first approach has revealed that a wide variety of marmora, both white and coloured, was employed. Giallo antico (marmor Numidicum), portasanta (marmor Chium), cipollino (marmor Karistium), pavonazzetto (marmor Docimium), grecco scritto, porfido rosso (lapis porphyrites), rosso antico (marmor Taenarium), africano (marmor Luculleum), verde antico (marmor Thessalicum) as well as Proconessian marble and hispanic marble from the southern quarries of Almadén de la Plata and Estremoz have been identified so far. However, in this preliminary phase we have also detected a differentiate patron of marble use: the tri-apsed room has provided only thick slabs of Hispanic marbles used as wall revetments (with the only exception of a piece of a portasanta doorframe) while the balnea was exclusively decorated with Eastern Mediterranean marmora.