The study of Roman urban centres in Portugal (ancient Lusitania) is now well developed, but the rural landscape has remained little known. A new collaborative European project (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, National University of Ireland Galway and University College Dublin) is investigating the rural landscape and its economy with the support of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Cologne and the Instituto Português do Património Arquitectonico from the Romanization of coast and hinterland, its Christianization and subsequent Islamicization.
The first excavation campaign carried out in 1999 was directed at the agricultural production centres around the Roman villa of Milreu (Estói, Algarve). Situated in the hinterland of the Phoenician/Roman city of Ossonoba (the modern provincial capital Faro), the villa of Milreu is one of the best preserved Roman ruins in Portugal. On the site of a preceding late Iron Age settlement (dating to the 1st century BC), a basic building was constructed at the beginning of the 1st century AD. In the process of several alterations and expansions, the extensive peristyle villa visible today developed. In the southwest, an extraordinary large bath complex adjoins the central part of the house, which was built around the peristyle, and the more private living-rooms were arranged around a small atrium. The high quality of the decoration and furnishing of the rooms is visible, not only in the extensive mosaic floors and the geometrical wall-paintings, but also in a whole series of marble busts portraying members of the Roman imperial family.
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Figure 1: Excavations in a cellar at the Roman villa of Milreu (Portugal) in summer 1999.
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Figure 2: Part of a mosaic floor in the peristyle of the Roman villa of Milreu (Portugal).
Final alterations after the mid 4th century AD at the villa of Milreu saw the simple brick pillars in the peristyle courtyard replaced by marble columns, and polychrome fish mosaics on the floors.
Nearby, a sanctuary very similar to the late classical one of São Cucufate (Baixo Alentejo) was built. This complex, constructed in the classical method of opus caementitium (using bricks and concrete) can clearly be identified as a peripteral temple on a podium. Within a generation this antique nymphaeum was converted into a church. In the temenos area a small mausoleum was built and south of the temple a rectangular baptismal font was added. Epigraphical evidence from one of the nymphaeum's marble columns proves a continuity of settlement and cult site long after the Christian period. The epitaphs, written in 9th-century style Arabic characters, request God's mercy for the deceased members of at least four generations of the same extended family.
Excavations by Estácio da Veiga in 1877 included the extensive peristyle, with richly coloured fish mosaics, baths and the late Roman sanctuary (nymphaeum). Later, the German Archaeological Institute in Lisbon concentrated its research on the sanctuary for several years. Then, in 1999, a new stage of systematic geophysical investigation was initiated. This was followed by excavations in the unexplored northwestern part of the settlement, which disclosed a large olive press and associated oil-collecting basin.
In a sequence of rooms of more than 20 m in length and at least 6 m in width the first parts of a pars rustica on two different floors were uncovered. The (at least four) documented phases of alteration indicate settlement from the beginning of the 1st century AD until late classical antiquity (5th century). Systematic depth probing during conservation of the polychrome mosaic floor in the peristyle area by the Portuguese authorities suggested that building structures dating from the 1st century AD existed under the flooring which dates to the 4th century, among them a stock-room full of big storage dolia. Whilst other villae rusticae of the Algarve region relied on the production of fish sauce (garum), the pars rustica of Milreu seems to have produced primarily oil and wine.
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Figure 3: Part of the oil production complex in the Roman villa of Milreu (Portugal), excavated in summer 1999 [1].
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Figure 4: Part of the oil production complex in the Roman villa of Milreu (Portugal), excavated in summer 1999 [2].
On the basis of the excavation results of this first campaign, and positive experiences with an international team, it is planned to continue within the Roman villa in 2000 (volunteers are still being accepted).
References
- AFFONSO DOS SANTOS, M.L.E. DA V. 1972. Arqueologia Romana do Algarve. Braga: Editora Pax.
- HAUSCHILD, T. 1997. Milreu, Estói, Villa romana e sanctuario, in M.F. Barata & R. Parreira (ed.), Noventa séculos entre a serra e o mar: 407ff. Lisbon: SOCTIP.
- HOFFMANN, B., A. NEVILLE, F. TEICHNER, D. WOOLISCROFT. 1999. The first geophysical survey at the Roman Villa of Milreu (Algarve/Portugal), in J.W. Fassbinder & W.E. Irlinger (ed.), Archaeological Prospection: proceedings of the Third International Conference on Archaeological Prospection: pp.43-4. Munich: Lipp Verlag. Arbeitshefte zur Bayer. Denkmalpflege 108.
- SIDARUS, A. & F. TEICHNER. 1996. Thermas romanas no Gharb Al-Ândalus. As inscrições árabes de Milreu (Estói), Arqueologia Medieval Mertola 5: pp.177-89.
- TEICHNER, F. 1997. Die römischen Villen von Milreu (Algarve/Portugal). Ein Beitrag zur Romanisierung der südlichen Provinz Lusitania, Madrider Mitteilungen 38: pp.71-98. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.