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Veii: the Valghetta Baths (‘Bagni Della Regina’)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

G. D. B. Jones
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The plateau on which the site of Veii stands is bounded by the steeply eroded valleys of the Fosso Piordo and the Torrente Valchetta, the ancient river Cremera. A kilometre to the north-east of their confluence near the Piazza d'Armi, the site of the bath-house serving the Roman municipium Augustum Veiens was exposed by river erosion in November 1959 (fig. 1). It lies across the narrow floor of the Valchetta ravine, where the river has changed course frequently since classical times. The ancient approach probably lay along a small track leading from the edge of the main town plateau immediately above the baths. This choice of position, which certainly had pre-Roman associations, was determined by the presence of a number of hot springs which break through the valley floor at this point. They are the result of quiescent volcanic activity; another example occurred on the opposite side of Veii, in the Vignacce area of the Fosso Piordo.

The site was known to antiquarians of the last century. Canina mentions the baths briefly (p. 73) and reproduces an engraving of them (Tav. XX) in Antica cittá di Veio (1847), which presumably shows the outer shell of the building before the river broke into it (pl. XX, a). It illustrates a vital point in understanding the remains as they stand at present.

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Articles
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , November 1960 , pp. 55 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1960

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References

1 The excavation was largely carried out by friends and residents of the School, in particular, Mrs. L. Murray Threipland, Mrs. J. Kahane and Mrs. Betty Eastwood. The Assistant Director, Mr. M. H. Ballance, kindly took some of the illustrations and the surveys are the work of Mrs. Ballance, Mr. J. Whewell, Mr. C. M. Daniels and myself. The schist axe was kindly examined and identified by Professor Enrico Ablolito of the Rome University Institute of Mineralogy. Finally I owe a special debt of thanks to the Director, Mr. J. B. Ward Perkins, who advised and encouraged the article throughout.

2 This is known from an electrical resistivity survey kindly carried out in the area behind the excavations by Dr. T. Schwarz in October 1960.

The ‘bridge’ referred to on the 1: 25,000 edition of the Istituto Geografico Militare map is in fact part of the river wall.

3 Examples of this have been found at Stockstadt, Wörth, Gellygaer and Corbridge; v. Daniels, C. M., ‘The Roman Baths at Red House, Corbridge,’ Archaetlogia Aeliana, xxxvii, p. 85 ffGoogle Scholar.

4 For the principle of this ingenious heating system, v. Archaeologia, 93, 1949, p. 177Google Scholar.

5 Suspemurae caldariorum ita sunt faciundae ut primum sesquipedalibus tegulis solum stematur (Vitruvius, V.10.2).

6 All the dimensions are very close to those given by Vitruvius (loc. cit.): supraque laterculis besalibus pilae struantur ita dispositae, uti bipedales tegulae possint supra esse conlocatae; altitudinem autem pilae habent pedes duo.

7 These features have been destroyed at one point by a 75 cm. robber trench.

8 Vitruvius, VII.4.2: deinde insuper erectae hamatae tegulae ab imo ad summam ad parietem figantur, quarum interiores partes curiosius picentur ut ab se respuant liquorem. The text is not certain, and mammatae, supplied from Pliny, , N.H. XXXV, 159Google Scholar, is often read for hamatae.

9 All measurements are taken from the upper edge of the hole.

10 Cf. R. Mclver, Villanovans and Early Etruscans, fig. 48, p. 136; J. Sundwall, Ältereu Italischen Fibeln, 1943, pp. 50, 198f.

11 Gerhard ap. Gell, , Memorie dell'Istituto di Correspondenza Archeologica, i, 1832, p. 24Google Scholar, item C.

12 Terme Stabiane: for plan v. Not. Scav. 1931, tav. XVII; for the small baths of Insula VIII v. Not. Scav. 1950, pp. 116–136.

13 The evidence for these conclusions is set out in detail in M. E. Blake, Ancient Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus, pp. 253–275 (esp. p. 274), and Lugli, G., La Tecnica Edilizia Romana, i, p. 506Google Scholar.

14 PBSR, xxvii, 1959, pp. 131–155 (esp. p. 154)Google Scholar.

15 For Veii, v. J. B. Ward-Perkins' article in the next volume of these Papers. Pending the full publication of Lucus Feroniae, there is a provisional description of the site by Bartoccini, R., Atti del VII Congresso Internationale di Archeologia Classica, Roma, 1958Google Scholar.

16 Lamboglia, N., Rivista di Studi Liguri, vii, 1941, pp. 7–22Google Scholar and xxiv, 1958, pp. 257–330, esp. p. 295.

17 Not. Scav. 1933, pp. 398–421.