Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 30. (2006) (Szombathely, 2007)
Régészet - Buocz Terézia: Római kori villa Zsennyén
SAVARIA A VAS MEGYEI MÚZEUMOK ÉRTESÍTŐJE, 30 Szombathely, 2006 RÓMAI KORI VILLA ZSENNYÉN 1 Buocz Terézia Savaria Múzeum, Régészeti Osztály H-9700 Szombathely, Kisfaludy S. u. 9., Hungary E-mail: archeo@savariamuseum.hu A VILLA OF THE ROMAN PERIOD AT ZSENNYE Remains of a building from the Roman period were excavated on the edge of the village of Zsennye, Vas county, in 1972. One of the N—S aligned rooms in the excavated building (HESZTERA 1988) revealed a mosaic floor, which is one of the outstanding finds in the villa. Slightly more than 20 sq. m in size, the mosaic surface divides into three parts. The dimensions of the mosaic room are approximately 430 by 560 cm. One side of the terrazzo room is 740 cm. The room to the NWofthe mosaics is 710 by 330 cm, while the width of the room along the S side of the mosaics was measured at 200 cm. The age of the mosaics is hard to determine, but the summary conclusion from long analyses is that the Zsennye mosaics were the work of a craftsman from Italy, based on a North Italian pattern book. The most analogies to them are found at Aquileia. Stylistic criticism suggests they were made in the middle or second half of the 2nd century. Coinage was not found during the excavation, and the finds accompanying the villa are little help in dating the mosaics either. Only the 1st and 2nd centuries can be determined from ceramic shards found under the terrazzo paving, fragments of a blue-grey hard-fired urn with braid decoration on the sides, urn rims painted with tar and marked by deep grooves, fragments of a cup of grey quartz clay, dishes with recurved rims and red and orange painting in the well, side and base fragments of pink-coloured and natural clay tankards with hollowed rings, fragments of sphere-segment dishes, and a fibula. The dating of the mosaics can be narrowed down to the second half of the 2nd century by the Mercury bust estimated to the first half of middle of the 2nd century, found under the rhomboid brick paving. The mosaics that were unearthed could not be displayed in situ. After 12 years in store, they were displayed in a pedestrian underpass in Thököly utca, Szombathely in 1985—90, but this exhibition area fell victim to privatization after the change of system. The mosaics were then stored at the museum in several pieces. They were then put on public display again in 2002—6 at the Praktiker store in the city. At present they are again in store awaiting a better fate. 1 A tanulmány előadás formájában az „Internationale Tagung über römerzeitliche Villen" című konferencián (Veszprém-Baláca, 2004. szeptember 20-23.) hangzott el. 47
