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Luxury Gallo-Roman villa found in Reims
Archaeologists in Reims have unearthed a luxurious Gallo-Roman urban villa from the 2nd century on the main road that crossed the ancient provincial capital of Durocortorum. Large pillars, fragments of painted plaster and three very fine bronze statuettes found in the domus indicate that the wealthy homeowners lavished money on decorations and associated themselves strongly with Roman culture.
The entrance to the home was 20 feet long, and flanked by two massive square pillars. Inside the domus, the remains of a frescoed wall bear the names of the hero Achilles and Deidamia, daughter of King Lycomedes of Scyros. Achilles dressed as a woman and hid on the island with Lycomedes’ seven daughters. He became Deidamia’s lover, only to leave the island and join the Trojan War on the Greek side when Odysseus showed up and exposed his true identity. The story was prized in Roman literature and there are many references to it, but only three other frescoes of this scene have been found so far as we know — in Aquileia, Pompeii and Rome — attesting to the education and Romanophilia of the elites in Reims.
The three bronze statuettes, found in a burn layer, are also examples of their owners’ wealth and attachment to Roman culture. After conservators microsandblasted away the encased burn and corrosion material, the figures were revealed to be of remarkably high quality.
One is a statue of Mars with silver eyes, a Medusa on his cuirass and a shield decorated a relief of the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus. He stands on a cylindrical base decorated with a floral scroll inlaid with silver and copper. Another is a bull, cast in exquisite detail from the wrinkles on his neck to the curls on his broad forehead. His eyes are silver too. The third is a figure of a goddess carrying the club of Hercules with a snake wound around it and the skin of the Nemean Lion underneath it. She also has a helmet, a later addition, that features a sphinx and a crown of battlements. She used to have wings, but they are lost now.
France’s National Institute of Preventative Archaeological Research (INRAP) is excavating the site before construction of a residence, giving archaeologists an opportunity to explore an area of Durocortorum that has not been excavated before. It was about than half a mile from the forum at the intersection of the decumanus maximus and the river Vesle. The spot was damp, relatively far from the political and religious center of the city and therefore not a prime location for a villa as sumptuous as this one.
It raises questions about the status of the owners. If they could afford to build a furnish so spectacular a house, why were they off the beaten path is the humid part of town? Researchers hope to shed more light on the issue with further study of the artifacts and remains of the domus.
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