K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2005/9. (Veszprém, 2005)

T. LÁNG, ORSOLYA: Control Excavations in the Territory of the Civil Town of Aquincum: the so-called „Testvérhegy-villa"

road, used from Roman times up to at least the 17th c. came to light at the foot of the hill, together with Roman inhumation and cremation graves. Control excavations carried out in 2003 on the slopes, yielded the remains of the so-called „villa-buildings" while part of the fencing wall and the entrance-unit for the settlement also came to light (Fig. 3). When comparing the result of the first research at the settlement and the modern ones of the present it can be seen that the topographical setting of the estate is already beginning to develope (Fig. 4). Elements of this estate will be examined in the following pages. The „villa" When some 60 years ago S. Garády discovered the remains of Roman buildings on the slopes of Testvérhegy (hill), he identified them as three separate buildings of which two may have been built as dwellings (nr. 1 and 3.) while one was designed for economic purposes (this was supported by its simpler ground-plan and the poor building-techniques used in its construction).

8 As the present owner of the site wanted to build houses nearby and also wishes to create an open-air archaeological park in this area, our duty was to control the results produced by S. Garády those many years ago (Fig. 5). Owing to the lack of precise information concerning the whereabouts of the buildings, five trenches were opened here, of which one proved to contain no archaeological material, while in the other four remains of already known buildings as well as new parts were also discovered. As we were only testing the results of previous research and measuring the approximate dimensions of the buildings, no whole-sclae excavation has yet been carried out here. Thus, only the topmost Roman layers were found and documented with little attention directed to chronology and how the buildings may have been used. Find material came mostly from layers that S. Garády had already distrubed. In the area of the so-called building nr. 1. already documented as well as „new" walls came to light, some 50-80cm below the modem level. These had been badly damaged by erosion. Roof debris, terrazzo-floors and in situ threshold stones were also documeted (Fig. 6). The binding material of the well-preserved walls were diverse including: clay, gravel or mortar. No traces of stucco or fresco-decoration was observed. The new parts discovered now suggest the groundplan described by Garády was sightly different since in all likelihood the complex probably had a central atrium-like room and - based on the floor remians - connection between buildings nr. 1 and 2 was also possible. Part of a small, internal roadway running east of the building, that probably connected the complex towards the main diagonal road also came to light. Building nr. 2. - as S. Garády had also observed - proved to have a much simpler construction. No binding material was documented (stones were put in the soil) though roof debris and well-preserved timbers were found (Fig. 7). The walls of building nr. 3. were also badly damaged and sometimes fell out because of errosion (Fig. 8). Remains of opus signinum on a north-south oriented wall suggest