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

Régészet - Buocz Terézia: Római kori villa Zsennyén

Buocz Terézia: Római kori villa Zsennyén 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 villa complex itself probably functioned for a long time, as shown by chafing dishes with yellowish green glaze and glazed vessel fragments. Furthermore, a grave of an early Christian type has been found in the cemetery not far from the villa, along with a typical ceramic dish with underglaze incised crosses in the base and an accompanying greenish-white conical cup, all of them suggesting the 4th century. Later the building was demolished or the stone plundered from it. When the foundations were being excavated, Smooth grey ceramic shards were found everywhere as filling for the trenches dug for the foundations. The mosaics that were unearthed could not be displayed in situ. After 12years 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. 92