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The Late Roman Villa of Vilauba and its Context. A First Report on Field-Work and Excavation in Catalunya, North-East Spain, 1978–81

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

R. F. J. Jones ,
S. J. Keay ,
J. M. Nolla  and
J. Tarrús
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Summary

The first three seasons of a joint Anglo-Catalan research project in north-eastern Spain have concentrated on the Roman villa of Vilauba. It has been shown that the site was occupied for some nine centuries, but the most important discoveries have been the elucidation of substantial phases of occupation from the fifth to seventh centuries A.D., which included in the latest phase a large press building for olive oil. These findings have pointed to the problems of the transition from the Roman to the early medieval period, which have also been met in the field survey of the surrounding region. The medieval settlement pattern had emerged by the ninth or tenth centuries, but its relationship with the Roman pattern remains to be clearly established. Important discoveries have also been made about considerable geomorphological changes in the area, which can be dated to the post-Roman period. A range of techniques have been used in the survey, including recording of standing buildings, geophysical survey and surface collection, which, added to the environmental and pottery studies from the excavation, are shedding important light on the Roman and early medieval rural development of this part of Spain and on the western Mediterranean more generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , September 1982 , pp. 245 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1982

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References

Notes

1 Place-names are generally given in the Catalan form, with the exception of places such as Ampurias where the Castilian form is widely known.

2 Recent publications include Martín, A., Ullastret. Guía de las excavaciones y su museo (4th edn., Girona, 1979)Google Scholar; Sanmartí, E., La Ceramica Campaniense de Emporion y Rhode (Monografiés Emporitanes IV, Barcelona, 1978)Google Scholar; Martín, A., Nieto, F. J. and Nolla, J. M., Excavaciones en la Ciudadela de Roses (Diputació Provincial de Girona, Servei d'Investigacions Arqueològiques, Sèrie Monogràfica 2, Girona, 1979)Google Scholar; Pons, E., La Fonollera—Un Poblado al aire libre del Bronce Final (Diputació Provincial de Girona, Servei d'Investigaciones Arqueològiques, Sèrie Monogràfica 1, Girona, 1977).Google Scholar

3 For the general geographical background to Catalunya, see Sabaris, Lluis Sole i (ed.), Geografia de Catalunya, 1 (Barcelona, 1958)Google Scholar; Nubiola, Lluis Mercadé i (ed.), Atlas de Catalunya, Geogràfic, Econòmic, Històric (3rd edn., Barcelona 1981).Google Scholar

4 Cf. Potter, T., The Changing Landscape of South Etruria (London, 1979)Google Scholar

5 Cf. Brian Dearden, ‘The ancient communications system of the Ampurdàn (Prov. de Gerona): a preliminary note’, in T. F. C. Blagg, R. F. J. Jones and S. J. Keay (eds.), Recent Work in the Archaeology of Spain and Portugal (B.A.R., forthcoming).

6 Corominas, J. M. and Marqués, J., La Comarca de Bañolas (Catálogo Monumental de la Provincia de Gerona; Fasciculos I–III Gerona, 1975, 1970, 1972).Google Scholar

7 Ramon Julià i Brugués, La Conca Lacustre de Banyoles-Besalú (Monografiés del Centre d'Estudis Comarcals de Banyoles, Banyoles, 1980); see also Sole i Sabaris, op. cit. in n. 3, pp. 215–19.

8 See Corominas and Marqués, op. cit. in n. 6, 1, pp. 23 ff.

9 Ibid., pp. 70–3.

10 Ibid., pp. 69–77.

11 For convenient accounts, see Jackson, Gabriel, The Making of Medieval Spain (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Read, Jan, The Catalans (London, 1978).Google Scholar

12 One of us (R.F.J.J.) has recently applied these methods successfully to deal with a similar problem of scarce diagnostic material masked by modern manuring debris on prehistoric sites in Yorkshire.

13 Cf. Corominas and Marqués, op. cit. in n. 6, III, p. 182.

14 Ibid., 1, p. 76.

15 Vita-Finzi, C., The Mediterranean Valleys (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar

16 Bintliff, J. L., Natural Environment and Human Settlement in Greece (B.A.R. S28, Oxford, 1977).Google Scholar

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18 Cf. Cherkauer, D. S., ‘Site K, the stratigraphy and chronology of the River Treia alluvial deposits’, in Potter, T., A Faliscan Town in South Etruria (London, 1976), pp. 106–20Google Scholar; Devereux, C. M., ‘Climate speeds erosion of the Algarve's valleys’, The Geographical Magazine (January 1982), 10–17.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Ponsich, M., Implantation rurale antique sur le Bas-Guadalquivir, 1 and 11 (Publ. de la Casa de Velazquez, série Archéologie 11 and III, Paris, 1974 and 1979)Google Scholar; Potter, op. cit. in n. 4; Dyson, S., ‘Settlement patterns in the Ager Cosanus: the Wesleyan University survey 1974–6’. J. Field Arch, v (3) (1978), 251–68.Google Scholar

20 J. M. Nolla and J. Tarrús with Julia Chinchilla.

21 I should like to thank S. J. Dockrill of Bradford University for his assistance in both processing and interpreting these results, although any remaining errors are the author's responsibility.

22 Cf. Aspinall, A. and Lynam, J. T., ‘An induced polarisation instrument for the detection of near-surface features’, Prospezione Archaéologiche, v (1970), 67–75Google Scholar; Aspinall, A. and Picard, K., ‘A direct reading earth resistance meter‘, Prospezione Archaéologiche, vi (1971), 21–4Google Scholar; Aitken, M. J., Physics and Archaeology (2nd edn., London, 1974).Google Scholar

23 Cf. Keay, S. J., ‘The Conventus Tarraconensis in the third century A.D.: crisis or change?’, in King, A. and Henig, M. (eds.), The Roman West in the Third Century (B.A.R. S109, Oxford, 1981), pp. 451–86Google Scholar; ‘Decline or continuity? The coastal economy of the Conventus Tarraconensis from the fourth century to the late sixth century A.D.’, in Blagg, Jones and Keay forthcoming, op. cit. in n. 5.

24 Throughout this section all references to rooms are related to the appropriate phase of the building—Room II/4 refers to Room 4 in Phase II. Also for ease of reference to the excavation plans (figs. 12–15), some of the excavation feature numbers are mentioned, as E. 66, standing for Estrato 66.

25 We are extremely grateful to Brian Dearden for arranging to take this aerial photograph with a radio-controlled camera mounted on a kite, at the end of the 1981 season.

26 We are grateful to J. Summerly for his comments on the inscription.

27 M. Ribas Bertrán, El Poblament d'lluro (Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Memories de la secció Historico-Arqueologica XII, Barcelona, 1952), fig. 32.

28 Durán, J. Guitart, ‘Excavaciones en la zona sudeste de la Villa romana de Santromà (Tiana),’ Pyrenae, vi (1970), 117, fig. 4.D.Google Scholar

29 A. Carandini and S. Settis, Schiavi e padroni nell'Etruria Romana: la Villa di Settefinestre dallo scavo alla mostra (1979), De Donato, panello 17.

30 M. Tagliaferro Boatwright, M. Buoncore, F. Coarelli, I. Di Stefano Manzella, D. Manacorda, M. Medri, S. Panciera and M. Torelli, Volusii Saturnini, una famiglia romana della prima etá imperiale (1982), pp. 70–1.

31 Cato, De Agricultura, xvii; Hero, Mekanika; Pliny, Historia Naturalis; Vitruvius, De Architectura; see summary of these and interpretation in Drachmann, A. G., Ancient Oil Mills and Presses (1932).Google Scholar

32 Vitruvius, De Architectura, vi, 3.

33 R. Étienne, Le quartier nord-est de Volubilis (Éditions du C.N.R.S., 1960, planche LXIII); the press was dated to the third century A.D.

34 One preserved in the Parque dels Expositions, at Montjuich in Barcelona; another at the Museu de Ví, at Vilafranca del Penedes, to the south of Barcelona; another incorporated into the Restaurant of ‘El Trull’, located a short distance to the north of Tarragona.

35 This is an arrangement again preserved in all the surviving press-rooms in the Guadalquivir valley, where the press-room appears as a tower-shaped building.

36 Cf. Sanmartí, E., Keay, S. J., Nolla, J. M., Casas, J., ‘La Romanización de Cataluña durante la época Republicana’, 3 Colloqui International d'Arqueologia de Puigcerdà (forthcoming, 1982).Google Scholar

37 S. J. Keay and J. M. Nolla, ‘Las tegulas estampadas de Caius Obulnius y la actividad de liberti en Cataluña’ (forthcoming).

38 Cf. Gorges, J. G., Les Villas Hispano-Romaines (Publ. du Centre Pierre Paris 4, Paris, 1979), p. 260 and pl. XXVI (Tossa de Mar), p. 323 and pls. XXXV, L, LI (Liédena).Google Scholar

39 Roses: Martín, Nieto and Nolla, op. cit. in n. 2; Can Santromà: Gorges, op. cit. in. n. 38, pp. 223–4; Guitart, op. cit. in n. 28.

40 Corominas and Marqués, op. cit. in n. 6,11, pp. 17 ff.