Download Here - Rutgers University

The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project: report on the first excavation season at Vacone (2012)
Dylan Bloy, Giulia Masci, Gary D. Farney, Matt Notarian*
Abstract: Summer 2012 was the first season of major field work on the Roman villa at Vacone
(RI) undertaken by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project (Rutgers University). This first season of
excavation concentrated upon uncovering rooms between two known concrete structures (opus
incertum), a cistern and a criptoportico. Two phases of villa habitation were uncovered, an
earlier phase (perhaps dating to the time of the concrete structures, ca. 100 BCE) and a later
phase (early Imperial). The Imperial phase had rooms with floors in mosaic patterns known from
other villas in the Upper Sabina Tiberina.
Our project’s aim is to investigate archaeologically a select cluster of Roman villa sites in the
Upper Sabina Tiberina, focusing on the Republican and early Imperial period (third century BCE
to second century CE) in order to assess regional patterns of rural habitation and agricultural
exploitation.1 We seek archaeological evidence of when the historical characterization of the
Sabina in the late Republic and early Empire is perceptible in the rural built environment,
especially evidence of agricultural intensification and subsequent economic development.2 As
part of the first phase of this project, we are excavating a previously known Roman villa site in
the area, near the town of Vacone (RI).
*This
is an English translation of “The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project: prima campagna di scavo a Vacone
(2012)”, in Lazio e Sabina 10 (2014), Pp. 13-18. 1
The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project is jointly under the direction of Gary D. Farney (Project Director),
Dylan Bloy (Field Director) and Giulia Masci (Site Director). It is funded by the operation of the Rutgers University
Archaeological Field School in Italy: fieldschool.rutgers.edu.
2
For recent thoughts about agriculture in Italy, see Goodchild (2007), Goodchild (2013) and Becker (2013).
Our surviving literary sources indicate that Rome conquered the Upper Sabina Tiberina
with the rest of Sabinum in 290 BCE.3 After Rome granted immediate limited citizenship (sine
suffragio) to the Sabines, full citizenship followed in 268, a stunning change in Roman policy
that had before only granted Latin rights to Latins, and allied status to others.4 After a dispute
about how confiscated Sabine land should be divided, it seems likely that some land went to the
native Sabines and Roman veterans, and some became ager publicus.5 Indeed, the historian
Fabius Pictor, writing ca. 200 BCE, claims that the Romans only became truly wealthy once they
had conquered the Sabines.6 Emilio Gabba and others have suggested that the Romans did in fact
become wealthy by exploiting the rich agricultural land of the Sabina Tiberina, in conjunction
with control of the Tiber, allowing relatively cheap transport downriver to markets in Rome.7
Presumably, “Romanized” Sabines got rich here as well as in the neighboring Sabina Reatina,
since we happen to know of a large number of Sabine Roman families who become senatorial
3
For the widely attested conquest of the Sabinum by Dentatus, see Cic. Sen. 43, 55, Pis, 58, Liv. Per. 11,
Columell, 1.Praef.14, V. Max. 4.3.5, Frontin. Str. 1.8.4, Vell. 1.14.6, Plin. NH 7.166, Flor. 1.10.2-3, Apul. Apol. 17,
D.C. fr. 36.33, Eutrop. 2.9.3, Vir. Ill. 33.1-3 and Oros. 3.22.11; see MRR 1.183-814 for these and other sources. For
discussion of the conquest, see Torelli (1987).
4
Full citizenship to Sabines: Vell. 1.14. Cf. Cic. Balb. 31, Off. 1.35 and Liv. 40.46. Frank (1911) 367-373
was among the first to argue (against Mommsen) that the Sabines were incorporated into Rome, not replaced by
Romans in the region. See, however, doubts by Roselaar (2010) 44 n. 100 that all Sabines were admitted to
citizenship.
5
For discussion of this, see DiGiuseppe, et al. (2002) 114-116. To which add the opinions of Frank (1911)
371-373, who believes the public land was in the “western” part of Sabinum (i.e. the Sabina Tiberina), and Roselaar
(2010) 312.
6
Fab. Pict. ap. Strab. 5.3.1 = FRH 1F26: φησί δ’ ὁ συγγραφεὺϛ Φάβιοϛ Ῥωµαίουϛ αἰσθέσθαι τοῦ πλούτου
τότε πρῶτον, ὅτε τοῦ ἔθνουϛ τούτου κατέστησαν κύριοι. Cf. Fab. Pict. and L. Cincius ap. D.H. 2.38.3 = FRH 1F10
and FRH 2F5 for “Sabine luxury” in the time of the kings of Rome, also discussed in Farney (2007) 106-109.
7
Gabba (1988) 19 and Gabba (1989); Di Giuseppe, et al. (2002) 115.
from the third century BCE forward: e.g., the Aurelii, Terentii, Memmii, Titurii, Vettii, Petronii,
Sertorii, Vatinii, Sallustii, Flavii Sabini and possibly the Porcii.8
Recent archaeological critiques of the concept of “Romanization,” like that of Nicola
Terranato, have emphasized the “heterogeneous and dialectic character” of cultural development,
even in adjoining regions of central Italy.9 A primary goal for our project is to gather and assess
evidence for cultural assimilation and local continuity in the material record of the Upper Sabina
Tiberina, enabling extensive comparison to the “Romanization” of other regions of central Italy.
Our secondary aim centers on the vexing question of the manner in which, and when,
agriculturally intensive cash crop-producing villas became the norm in the Sabina among the
Roman elite. Some scholars have assumed that the idealized farmstead Cato the Elder describes
in the De Agricultura accurately depicts a second century BCE predecessor of such villas.10
Cato’s idealized farm may even have had Sabine inspiration, to judge from the consistent links to
Cato’s Sabine identity in the literary record, including the fact he was raised on a “Sabine”
farm.11 However, in the archaeological record, there remains little evidence of such a villa type
attributable to the third or second centuries BC. Examining and contextualizing Roman
8
Farney (2007) 78-124.
9
Terrenato (1998).
10
E.g. Mari (2005), interpreting survey data in the southern ager Sabinus. Arguing against this view, see
Terrenato (2012), at p. 87: “From this perspective, the De Agricultura can only be understood as an exercise in
aristocratic self-fashioning that combines some traditional rustic lore (to which Cato may well have been exposed in
his relatively modest childhood) with a fantasy about a respectable fortune to be made through agriculture on a scale
as yet unseen at the time, while staying well within the bounds of the most Puristan of parsimonies.”
11
Sabine origins for Cato have been put forward by many, e.g. Fraccaro (1910) 169ff., Gelzer RE s.v.
"Porcius (9)" 108 and Taylor (1960) 248: they take into account the "Sabine-farm" argument, and the fact that his
grandfather's praenomen was excluded from the Fasti, which they believe speaks to his non-citizen—and therefore,
they postulate, his Sabine—origin. See Farney (2007) 109-111 for a few more arguments in support of a Sabine
origin for the Porcii.
Republican villas on a regional scale may shed new light on both of these persistent questions.
Accordingly, to address these questions our team will turn to early Roman villa sites,
archetypal examples of “Romanization.” We have identified a study group of well-preserved
villas in the Upper Sabina Tiberina, most of which have concrete criptoportici built in opus
incertum or opus reticulatum, suggesting Republican or at latest early Imperial construction.
These criptoportici form terraced podia which became the bases villae for their domestic
quarters, which exhibit mosaic flooring, painted plaster, and other finds associated with the pars
urbana of the classic Roman villa. Although long known from their significant extant remains, as
detailed by Mara Sternini’s work La Romanizzazione della Sabina Tiberina, these villas have not
yet been the subject of comprehensive scientific exploration.12 Moreover, only one villa in the
study area, at Cottanello, convincingly linked to the Sabine-Roman nobiles, the Aurelii Cottae,
has ever seen extensive unscientific excavation in the past.13 This site is now the site of a
scientific excavation project under the auspices of the University of Rome. Our area had one
major municipality, Forum Novum, which has also only been partially excavated, surveyed, and
published.14 The British School at Rome’s Tiber Valley Project between 1997 and 2004 focused
mainly on this town and its hinterland, but their field walking survey omitted the majority of the
Upper Sabina Tiberina, especially the northernmost area where the Vacone and Cottanello villas
are located.
Our first archaeological goal is the survey and excavation of the Roman villa variously
called the “Villa con Criptoportici”, “Villa d’Orazio” or “Sassogrosso” near the modern town of
12
Sternini (2004).
13
Sternini (2000); Pensabene and Gasparini (2011). Another villa near the site of Forum Novum has been
partially studied: Gaffney, Patterson and Robers (2001) 63-70.
14
Lorenzetti (1998); Patterson and Millett (1998); Patterson, et al. (2000); Gaffney, Patterson and Roberts
(2001), (2004) and (2006).
Vacone, in the northernmost part of our subject area. Today the center of our villa site is on
commune di Vacone property, abutting a modern road and several private properties. The villa
was rediscovered in the 1960s during construction on the nearby road. The central area of the
villa had been most recently utilized as an olive grove, and many of these trees remain dispersed
throughout the architectural remains.
Our team selected Vacone for initial excavation because of previous research in the late
1980s by the office of the Soprintendenza di Lazio under the direction of Prof. Giovanna
Alvino.15 The villa is located on a terraced platform on the southern face of Monte Cosce. This
terrace is enclosed by two standing concrete structures, both built in opus incertum (Figure 1).
Both were originally identified as criptoportici, but subsequent investigation in the summer of
2013 proved that the upper structure was a cistern; we still believe the lower structure is a
criptoportico. Between 1986 and 1987, the Soprintendenza performed interventions on the two
structures to reinforce their structural integrity. This included some limited excavation and
restoration work. Exploration near the upper structure revealed a torcular for the pressing of
wine or oil, adjacent to its northeastern end at a higher elevation, with an opus spicatum channel
leading to a collecting basin in the lower interior of the same structure. Additionally, a concretedomed structure with niches in the wall stands adjacent to this press. The room has been crudely
bisected by the construction of a wall that cuts into its original masonry on both sides.
Unfortunately, investigations in this area proved impossible last season as the temporary roofing
structure erected over these finds in the 1980s had collapsed.
The work on the lower structure, the criptoportico, performed by the Soprintendenza
uncovered a forty-meter long mosaic floor above the roof, running its entire length (Figure 2).
15
Alvino (2009). See also Marzano (2007) 628-629.
This flooring was later removed and taken to storage at Tivoli. The upper level of the lower
criptoportico may therefore have functioned as a portico overlooking the valley to the south,
associated with the residential sector of the villa. During the course of these earlier excavations,
three in situ thresholds were also unearthed at various locations along the northern wall of the
portico (marked by the red arrows in the slide). A fourth threshold was found in pieces atop the
mosaic floor in the portico. This strongly suggested that rooms were present within the terraced
area between the cistern and the criptoportico. Although the Soprintendenza did not excavate
much beyond these thresholds, small traces of exposed mosaics just beyond them suggested that
this region made up part of the villa’s domestic quarter.
Our first work on the villa was conducted in October of 2011 when our team performed
geophysical investigation of the main villa area accessible to us. Analysis of ground penetrating
radar data suggested the existence of several walls of the villa, meeting at right angles.
Subsequent excavation has uncovered some of these walls. It is hoped that more excavation
where we have surveyed, that is conducting “ground-truthing” exercises, will help our team
determining what data processing strategies provide the most accurate results for our future
geophysical surveys.
Next, our project’s five-week summer 2012 season concentrated on the area immediately
north of the mosaic-floored portico discovered in 1986 and 1987, which lies atop the
criptoportico. We began with the two largest in situ thresholds, in order to clearly define the
rooms into which they led. Our resulting excavations identified several rooms along the portico,
all of which had mosaic floors (Figure 3). The mosaic tesserae were limited to a three-color
palette of white, black, and red, the last from the nearby Cottanello quarries. Like at the
Cottanello villa, these colors were used to create geometric designs often seen in two-color black
and white mosaics of the early Imperial period. The local availability of Cottanello red marble
must explain the prevalence of this color in designs characteristic of black and white mosaic
style elsewhere in Italy. The black and white reticulated mosaic in room VII is similar to the
design of the mosaic in room 10 at the Cottanello villa (Figure 4).16 Likewise the portico mosaic
lifted by the Soprintendenza had the same basic geometric scheme as the hallway mosaic in
room 2 at Cottanello.17 We also found two opus scutulatum mosaics (Figure 5), a style that also
appears in two examples of late Republican or early imperial date found in the area of the
basilica in Forum Novum.18
While the stratigraphic layers above the mosaic floors of many rooms contained heavy
concentrations of roof tiles and painted wall plaster from the structural collapse of the villa, the
area just inside the threshold of Room VI revealed a concentration of decorative architectural
stucco, which clearly collapsed from a vaulted ceiling or perhaps wall niche in this room (Fig. 6).
Here we found straight and curved pieces of architectural stucco decorated with both bead-andreel and egg-and-dart moldings.
Little direct evidence for chronology was recovered during this season’s excavation. All
of the areas excavated proved to produce surprisingly little pottery, few pieces of which were
diagnostic, particularly in the layers between the plaster and roof collapse and the mosaic floors.
The most dateable finds were sherds of Italian terra sigillata, found both above mosaic floor
levels and out of context higher in the soil column. Room III, a room with a black-and-white
quatrefoil mosaic decoration with red borders (Figure 7, was the site of two of the most
significant finds of the season, including the only coin, found in an interface layer that
16
Sternini (2000) 84-85.
17
Sternini (2000) 94-95.
18
Alvino (1995) 506-507, 513.
unfortunately also included modern material. This sestertius, dated between 103 and 111 CE,
was in excellent condition and easily identified (Fig. 8).19 From this scanty evidence and the
tesserae size and style of the mosaics, we tentatively conclude that the rooms encountered in this
season’s excavations were constructed during the Augustan or Julio-Claudian era, and were
perhaps still in use in the second century CE, as the Trajanic coin suggests.
The other significant and unexpected discovery in Room III was the burial of a child in a
simple stone lined tomb located in the southeast corner of the room, cutting through the mosaic
floor (Figure 9). The fact that the stones used to construct the crude walls of the tomb cut
through the mosaic floor demonstrated that this was a later burial, and the child (perhaps between
three and five years of age) was most likely interred when the villa was in a state of ruin. No
grave goods were found with the body, but the skeleton was in a good state of preservation with
the exception of its skull, which was displaced and broken into several large pieces by a tree
root. Such later burials are not uncommon in the excavation of villas in central Italy, as well as in
many other parts of the empire.20 A subsequent examination by our site anthropologist in July
2013 revealed that the child was between the ages of 3 and 5 years old and was most likely male;
we plan to publish these observations, along with the results from more testing planned for the
remains, in a later publication.
The southeastern corner of Room III beneath the burial also provided the best evidence
for an earlier phase of the villa below the mosaic floors. This consists of a stone cross wall,
which was found beneath the level of the child burial, that separates Rooms III and IV (Figure
10). This cross wall bore unpainted plaster on both faces below the level of the mosaic floors in
19
RIC 489 (Trajan).
20
Marzano (2007) 218-222.
these two rooms, strongly suggesting that this wall was built before these mosaic floors were
constructed. The excavation of the fill below this grave cutting also included painted plaster
fragments of markedly different style than those encountered on the walls and collapsed on the
mosaic floors of the later villa. The fill from this context has not yet yielded any pottery, but the
discovery of a few sherds of black glazed fineware elsewhere on site does suggest a Republican
phase of the villa. The phase we are encountering beneath the mosaic floors is thus most likely of
late Republican date, and may correspond to the opus incertum masonry employed in the
construction of the criptoportici. Going forward we hope to explore carefully any such areas
where the mosaic flooring has been disrupted to find evidence for earlier phases of the structure.
In sum then our excavations revealed two separate villa phases thus far. The topmost
would seem to date to the early empire, most likely constructed in Augustan or Julio-Claudian
times and perhaps still in use during the second century CE. The earlier phase, so far only
explored in the area in Room III where the later burial destroyed the mosaic floor, could date to
the time of the construction of the criptoportici, whose masonry style would seem to support a
date of construction within the last century of the Republic. But, again, this is still unclear and
must be researched more. Indeed, the foundation period of the villa is crucial to our project’s
aims.
Bibliography:
FRH
H. Beck and U. Walter (eds.), Die frühen römischen Historiker, 2 vols. (Darmstadt, 2001,
2004)
MRR T. R. S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, 3 vols. (New York, 1951-1952,
1986)
RE
A.
von
Pauly
et
al.
(eds.),
Paulys
Real-Encyclopädie
der
classischen
Altertumswissenschaft, 84 vols. (Stuttgart, 1893-1980)
RIC
C. H. V. Sutherland and R. A. G. Carson (eds.) Roman Imperial Coinage, vols. 1-2, rev.
ed. (London, 1984)
----------------------------Alvino, G. (1995). “Pavimenti musivi del territorio sabino.” In Brigantini, I. and Guidobaldi, F.
(Eds.) Atti del II colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana per lo Studio e la Conservazione
del Mosaico (AISCOM), Roma 5-7 dicembre 1994, Rome: 501-516.
Alvino, G. (2009). Vacone. Forma Urbis, Rome.
Becker, J.A. (2013). “Villas and agriculture in Republican Italy.” In Evans, J.D. (Ed.) A
Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic, Blackwell: 309-322.
DiGiuseppe, H. et al. (2002). “The Sabinensis ager revisited: a field survey in the Sabina
Tiberina.” PBSR 70: 99-149.
Farney, G.D. (2007). Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in the Roman Republic,
Cambridge.
Fraccaro, P. (1910). “Sulla biografia di Catone Maggiore sino al consolato e le sue fonti.” Atti e
memorie dell'Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova 3: 99-135 = Opuscula 3 Vols. (Pavia
1956-1957) 2.139-175.
Frank, T. (1911). “On Rome’s conquest of Sabinum, Picenum and Etruria.” Klio 11: 367-381.
Gabba, E. (1988). “Aspetti militari e agrari.” DArch 6(2): 19-22.
Gabba, E. (1989). “Allora i romani conobbero per la prima volta la ricchezza.” Annali
dell’Istituto Italiano di Numismatica 36: 9-17.
Gaffney, V., Patterson, H. and P. Roberts (2001). “Forum Novum-Vescovio: studying urbanism
in the Tiber Valley.” JRA 14: 59-79.
Gaffney, V., Patterson, H. and P. Roberts (2004). “Forum Novum (Vescovio): a new study of the
town and the bishopric.” In Peterson, H. (Ed.) Bridging the Tiber: approaches to regional
archaeology in the Middle Tiber, London: 237-251.
Gaffney, V., Patterson, H. and P. Roberts (2006). “Forum Novum – Vescovio. The results of the
2003 field season.” Lazio e Sabina 3: 109-114.
Goodchild, H. (2007). Modeling Roman Agricultural Production in the Middle Tiber Valley,
Central Italy. D. Phil., U. of Birmingham.
Goodchild, H. (2013). “Agriculture and the environment of Republican Italy.” In Evans, J.D.
(Ed.) A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic, Blackwell: 198-213.
Lorenzetti, R. (1998). L’agro foronovano. Insediamenti storici architettura rurale e mondo
contadino, Città di Castello, Perugia.
Marzano, A. (2007). Roman Villas in Central Italy: a social and economic history, Boston.
Mari, Z. (2005). “La villa romana tardo-repubblicana nell’ager Sabinus e Tiburtinus: tra fonti
letterarie e documentazione archeologica." In Santillo Frizell, B. and A. Klynne (Eds.)
Roman Villas around the Urbs. Interaction with Landscape and Environment.
Proceedings of a Conference at the Swedish Institute in Rome. September 17-18, 2004,
Rome: 75-95.
Patterson, H. and Millett, M. (1998). “The Tiber Valley Project.” PBSR 66: 1-20.
Patterson, H. et al. (2000). “The Tiber Valley Project: the Tiber and Rome through two
millennia.” Antiquity 74: 395-403.
Pensabene, P. and E. Gasparini (2011). “La villa romana di Cottanello (Rieti): nuove indagini
della Sapienza – Università di Roma a quarant’anni dalla scoperta.” Lazio e Sabina 8:
147-157.
Sternini, M. (Ed.) (2000). La Villa Romana di Cottanello, Bari.
Sternini, M. (2004). La Romanizzazione della Sabina Tiberina, Bari.
Taylor, L.R. (1960). The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic, Rome.
Terrenato, N. (1998). “Tam firmum municipium: the Romanization of Volaterrae and its cultural
implications.” JRS 88: 94-114.
Terrenato, N. (2012). “The enigma of ‘Catonian’ villas: the De Agricultura in the context of
second-century BC Italian architecture.” In Becker, J.A. and N. Terrenato (Eds.) Roman
Republican Villas, Ann Arbor: 69-93.
Torelli, M.R. (1987). “La conquista romana della Sabina.” DArch 5(2): 43-51.
Figures
Fig. 1: Rilievi realizzati dalla Soprintendenza del criptoportico superiore (immagine in alto) e di quello inferiore (immagine in basso) in occasione dei lavori del 1986-­‐7. Fig. 2: Rilievi realizzati dalla Soprintendenza che mostrano i mosaici nella Stanza I (a sinistra) e nel portico al di sopra del croptoportico inferiore (Stanza II), in cui si vedono I blocchi delle soglie rinvenuti durante gli scavi del 1986-­‐87. Fig. 3: Foto realizzata dal tetto del ristorante adiacente che mostra la parte superiore restaurata del criptoportico inferiore con le trincee dello scavo del 2012 visibili accanto. Fig. 4: Solco di vigna realizzato intaccando il mosaico della stanza VII; in primo piano si vedono i diversi strati del mosaico. Fig. 5: Stanza IV con la soglia asportata visibile a destra. Fig. 6: Stucco decorativo rinvenuto nello strato di caduta al di là della soglia della Stanza VI. Fig. 7: Mosaico bianco e nero con bordo rosso nella Stanza III. Si noti il blocco della soglia che dà accesso alla Stanza III dal portico sulla destra e il solco che taglia la superficie pavimentale nella parte superiore destra della foto. Fig. 8: Sesterzio in lega bronzea di Traiano, RIC II 489. Recto (sinistra): Traiano raffigurato in un busto laureato rivolto verso destra con la legenda NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P. Verso (destra): Roma seduta rivolta verso sinistra sulle spoglie, che tiene nella mani la Vittoria e una lancia con la legenda SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI S C. Fig. 9: Sepoltura d’infante in una tomba rivestita di pietre grossolanamente costruita. Fig. 10: Mura tra le stanze III e IV.