Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 30. (2006) (Szombathely, 2007)

Régészet - Buocz Terézia: Római kori villa Zsennyén

Savaria a Vas megyei Múzeumok Értesítője, 30 (2006) Since it was possible only to clear the site of finds and dig a few trial trenches, only an insignificant proportion of the building complex could be uncovered (Figures 2 and 21). The average wall width is 60—80 cm and the heights range between 40 and 50 cm. In some places, we found above the foundation walls bricks belonging to the upper walls (Figure 22). Some of the bricks bear private marks. One fragment shows the negative letters rn, which can be expanded to saturninus (Find R. 73.8.7). Another brick fragment bears the negative letters cr in its indentation (Find R. 73.8.8, Figures 3 and 24). 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 room adjacent it to the E was paved in terrazzo (Figure 25). The room to the S of the mosaic was paved in rhomboid bricks. Two smaller rooms belonged to the wall running to the W of the mosaic, but there was no chance to explore these. 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 NW of the mosaics is 710 by 330 cm, while the width of the room along the S side of the mosaics was measured at 200 cm. During the excavation, a small bronze bust of Mercury was found in the room with a rhomboid brick floor (Figure 14). This can be dated between the late Hadrianic or early Antonine period

—an intermediate period when the linear expression of the Hadrianic had not yet reached the style typical of the later Antonine (Marcus Aurelius portrait, AURENHAMMER 1983:124. Figure 8). The outstanding relic from the villa is a mosaic pattern found in the paving of one of the rooms (Figures 15 and 31). This was put together out of black and white pieces with edges of

1—1.3 cm. The edges embedded in the terrazzo layer are shaped like pegs. The layer of terrazzo itself is 10 cm deep (Figure 19: section XXII; Figure 16: section XXV). The largest of the three main parts is a square white surface with a black border, framing a circular black pattern. The circumferences of the concentric circles increase in an outward direction, as do the black and white triangles they contain. The emphatic black circle in the centre contains three radial triangles with their peaks pointing outwards. Although these vary in size from circle to circle, the number of them remains constant. The innermost circle contains a rosette. The green flower that appears in the middle of the white ground has a black leaf between its four petals, its outward-pointing tip attaching to a palmette (Figure 32). The pattern in the centre joins with the circle pattern within the square to produce a spiral effect. The corner wedges of the square, on a white ground, are filled with leafy branches extending in two directions out of a white vase. The hooked ends of the leafy tendrils are coiled like a volute (Figure 34). The narrow field above the square is surrounded by a black border and contains a linear black motif on a white ground. The space between the two pairs of pendlant volute patterns contains a narrow black cross of stylized leaves. Between the broad parts of the volutes, the black mosaic pieces enclosed a white palmette form, from which grow stylized sedges (Figure 33). The narrow decorated field and the square are bounded on all sides by two rows of white pieces on the outer edge of the black borders and parallel with them. The next outer bands and the third oblong field in the upper part are white. The mosaic pieces have been laid in oblique lines (Figure 35). 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 91