Historical and archaeological context

JOSEP ANTON REMOLÀ VALLVERDÚ

The Roman villa of Els Munts: The historical and archaeological context

THE ROMAN VILLAGE OF ELS MUNTS, LOCATED AROUND 12 KM NORTHEAST OF TARRACO, IS THE RESULT OF A COMPLEX SUCCESSION OF BUILDINGS

Introduction

The Roman villa of Els Munts, located around 12 km northeast of Tarraco, is the outcome of a complex succession of buildings generated over more than seven centuries of steady and virtually uninterrupted occupation. In the almost 200 years of the existence of the early imperial villa of Els Munts, its period of peak splendour and architectural development, the buildings underwent a series of transformations which, together with the constructions of earlier and later buildings, comprise an architectural reality that is complex to interpret and articulate. This complexity, already sensed in the earliest excavation campaigns, was confirmed in later archaeological interventions, which are the foundation of the first proposed hypothesis on the architectural evolution of the villas which succeeded one another in the Roman and late ancient world.

After it was abandoned at some uncertain point in the 7th century, much of the remains were disassembled primarily by humans, but also by weather. This continued until the 1960S, when the Provincial Archaeology Museum under the stewardship of PM Berges (1970, 1977) started an extensive excavation programme which partly affected the upper platform and the garden and almost entirely encompassed the triclinium and adjacent areas, the “Castel” reservoir, the southern baths and what are known as the “beach baths”. The main documentary source available comes from the excavations undertaken by the National Archaeology Museum of Tarragona (MNAT) under the direction of F Tarrats between 1995 and 2007 (Tarrats et al. 1998, 2000, 2008; Tarrats/Remolà 2007).

Schematic layout of the Roman villa of Els Munts. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

The villa in the era of Augustus (1st century AD)

Although we are aware of the existence of a phase from the 1st century AD based on the study of Italic terra segillata, south Gallic terra segillata and Hispanic terra segillata (Tarrats 2003), the first structural proof came in 2004 on the far eastern part of the walkway in the semi-underground floor, beneath the preparation level for the mosaic. The structures documented, which were torn down to build the village in the 2nd century AD, correspond to a press which now joins the one identified early in the southeast in the excavations from the late 1960S.

Based on the description of the building technique, a preliminary analysis of the visible structures enables us to cautiously identify structures that might be associated with this building, extending southward to the location of the villa’s later southern baths from the 2nd century AD. Structures from prior to the construction in the 2nd century AD can also be found on the upper platform. Also to the north, structures from the 1st century AD which may also be associated with this building have been documented, albeit without any clear stratigraphic evidence.

The villa in the era of Hadrian (1st century AD)

Between the late 1st and the early 2nd centuries AD, the earlier villa was torn down to prepare the land for a new, larger and more complex building comprised of a hierarchised succession of constructions which urbanised much of the southern slope of Els Munts. The project, whose axes run northeast / southwest, shows a layout similar to what is found in the urban nucleus of Tarraco and the preceding villa. The ensemble had to be designed in terraces which regularised the slope extending from Altafulla beach to the upper flatland.

The construction project of this villa was a complex process: we have posited the existence of an initial project which underwent major changes during its execution that considerably expanded the size and monumentality designed in the original project.

We shall concentrate on the second phase, which is the project that was ultimately executed, and the source of most of the conserved remains. During the execution, or at least before construction was finished, the project underwent a profound change. The built structure was given no decorative treatment on either the walls (panelling or murals) or the floor.

Aerial view of the Roman villa of Els Munts. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

Close-up of the walkway paved with mosaic that articulated the semiunderground floor of the main building in the villa. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

The changes affected the ensemble as a whole, which was extended northward as far as the northeast slope of the upper flatland and southward up to the beachline. The most notable change documented in the main building is the replacement of the porch connecting with the southern baths with a crypto-porch with an attached hallway and rooms. This was a semiunderground room which increased the inhabitable area but hindered the initial plans to situate the cisterns which were to supply water to the bath building under construction at this point. The water supply system had to be totally overhauled.

Hypothetically, the new water infrastructures must have been built with this change in the project, such as the ones documented on the upper flatland (“Tartana”), which may be associated with the water supply of the building’s main floor, or on the northwest slope, called the “Castel” reservoir. The large cistern/nymphaeum located in the garden between the main building and the southern baths, which was meant to supply the latter with water, may also be related to the construction of this crypto-porch.

The main floor of the main building opened to a porticoed gallery with views of the garden and the sea. A series of important rooms were reached via the gallery and might hypothetically be the source of the mural fragments representing agonistic crowns with tituli picti in Greek inserted into an architectural scene. The paintings in opus vermiculatum representing the Muses and a male portrait most likely come from the gallery. Likewise, an extensive set of statuary, including one clearly portraying Antinoös, the lover deified by Hadrian, also come from the main floor.

The best conserved remains come from the semi-underground floor of the main building, which was connected to the upper floor via staircases which connected to a covered walkway decorated with geometric mosaic on the floor and a mural on the walls. The walkway led to a series of rooms (primarily the cubicula with an antechamber and chamber) decorated with murals. One of the rooms in the semi-underground floor was transformed into a cistern on the orders of Avitus and Faustina, an act commemorated by a inscription painted on a depiction of the god Oceanos. This Avitus is unquestionably Caius Valerius Avitus, as documented by the discovery of his personal seal in a well on the upper floor. Via the epigraphy, we know that he was transferred from his native Augustobriga (Muro de Ágreda) to Tarraco, where he was designated duumvir on orders of the emperor Antoninus Pius in the mid-2nd century AD.

At the other end of this walkway, another staircase connected to another perpendicular

walkway leading to a large triclinium decorated with exceptional mosaics and seven small fountains in the main room. The crypto-porch connected with a portico which ran straight as far as the building housing the southern baths. Another stretch of the perpendicular walkway led to the Mithraeum, one of the most exceptional and enigmatic buildings in the ensemble.

The Mithraeum stands out for its large size, similar to that of the Mithraeum delle Terme di Caracalla (Rome), as well as for its rural location. This mysterious religion from the East tended to have small local groups of followers, primarily in military encampments and cities. The sanctuary was comprised of a pronaos, a grotto or cave and a worship room. The purpose of the pronaos is not clear. It may have been a meeting room for followers, a dressing room (apparatorium) and place to prepare the paraphernalia for the ceremony, or a kitchen to prepare ritual meals. The ritual banquet in which the god celebrated the end of his mission on Earth before getting into his cart and embarking upon his voyage to heaven was held inside the cave or speleum.

The celebration consisted in a meal in which the seven grades of initiates (Corax, raven; Nymphus, bridegroom; Miles, soldier; Leo lion; Perses, Persian; Heliodromus, sun-runner; and Pater, father) acted according to their assigned roles. The initiates in the first three grades acted more as servants than as true participants in the mysteries. At the back of the cave, the three-part

Overview of the building housing the southern baths. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

The southern baths from the entrance atrium. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

Pool/ nymphaeum in the frigidarium of the southern baths. Photo: ©MNAT Archive worship room was raised on a podium, which must have harboured the depiction of the tauroctony, the culmination of Mithraic doctrine.

Slight fragments of the exuberant iconography which characterised Mithraic sanctuaries was recovered, both in the floors and cladding and on the furnishings. What clearly stands out is a fragment from a sculptural group of marble from Luni/Carrara representing two figures, one almost life-sized and the other smaller, both covered with cloaks.

The building housing the southern baths was reached via a walkway which led to the atrium. The atrium, in turn, led to a large dome-covered luxuriously decorated room. The thermal ritual began in this room and included different rooms with warm and cool pools. Most prominent is the natatio and the pool/nymphaeum of the frigidarium. Next to the natatio, a walkway decorated with paintings depicting a garden led to the latrines, located next to the furnaces that heated the water and air.

Proof of the magnificent decoration of this building comes from the scant signs of mosaics, the remnants of marble cladding and the sculptural group recovered, which included statutes of Asclepas, Hygieia and Eros, a possible depiction of the goddess Fortuna and a scutum profusely decorated with iconography with cosmological meaning with the remains of the forearm of a male figure. Most of them can be dated from the 2nd century, between Hadrian and the Antonines. From one end of the southern baths it was possible to continue the route to what were known as the “beach baths”, a monumentalised fountain with a freshwater pool on the beach.

North of the villa was a large quarry which probably reached its peak extraction during this period. To the west was an extensive burial ground in use between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD. The start of the necropolis seems to dovetail with a critical episode which put an end to the late imperial villa. The villa was attacked in around the third quarter of the 3rd century, as proven by the discovery in the semi-underground floor of a corpse with marks from a cutting object on the cranium and signs of a fire that affected the main building, although it did not collapse. The remains, which are partly calcinated, correspond to an adult individual (30-40 years) carrying a case with 15 sestertii and one Dressel 20-type lamp in the right hand.

We can conjecture with some conviction a possible relationship with the general situation in Tàrraco and the western half of the empire in the late 3rd century. In the time of Gallienus (ca. 260), Frankish contingents crossed the Pyrenees and reached as far as Tarraco, where one part captured ships anchored in the city’s port to head to North Africa, while another part remained in the territory for a 12-year period (Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, Eusebius-Hieron and Orosius).

The late Roman villa ( 5th century AD)

Throughout the 4th century, the villa remained active yet underwent profound quantitative and qualitative changes. Hypothetically, the deterioration of the main building may have shifted the residential function to the bath building. In this period, the necropolis started late in the preceding century continued to develop.

There are signs of new building activity in the early 5th century, specifically the restoration of the portico of the gallery on the main floor (and adjacent rooms? which had been damaged in the incidents in the late 3rd century. A significant part of the architectural and decorative elements recovered in the demolition levels conserved in the semi-underground floor seem to come from this period: capitals, column shafts, capitals from the lessene, etc. At an imprecise date, this part of the building collapsed, but the late Roman villa carried on until the late ancient period.

The southern baths from the walkway leading to the latrines. Photo: ©MNAT Archive

Bibliography

P.M. Berges (1970), “Informe sobre ‘Els Munts”, Boletín Arqueológico, IV, 105-112, Tarragona, 140-150.

P.M. Berges (1977), “Nuevo informe sobre els Munts”, Estudis Altafullencs 1, Altafulla, 27-47.

F. Tarrats (2003), “La terra sigillata i les primeres fases d’ocupació de la vil·la romana dels Munts (Altafulla, Tarragonès)”, Revista d’Arqueologia de Ponent 13, 315-335.

F. Tarrats, J.M. Macías, E. Ramón, J.A. Remolà (1998), “Excavacions a l’àrea residencial de la vil·la romana dels Munts (Altafulla, Tarragonès)”, Empúries, 51, 197-225.

F. Tarrats, J.M. Macias, E. Ramón i J.A. Remolà (2000), “Nuevas excavaciones en el área residencial de la villa romana de ‘Els Munts’ (Altafulla, Ager Tarraconensis), estudio preliminar”, MM 41, 358-379, Tafel 64-67.

F. Tarrats, J.A. Remolà (2007), “La vil·la romana dels Munts (Altafulla, Tarragonès), J. A. Remolà (coord.), El territori de Tarraco, vil·les romanes del Camp de Tarragona, Forum 13, Tarragona, 95-117.

F. Tarrats, J.A. Remolà, J. Sánchez (2008), “La vil·la romana dels Munts (Altafulla, Tarragonès) i Tarraco”, Tribuna d’Arqueologia 2006, 15, 213-228.

DETAILS

GENERIC CLASSIFICATION: archaeological and palaeontological material | OBJECT: site | MATERIAL / TECHNIQUE: diverse DATE/ERA: Roman, from the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD | LOCATION: National Archaeology Museum of Tarragona (MNAT) Roman villa of Els Munts, Altafulla (Tarragonès) | CATALOGUING: Archaeological ensemble of Tàrraco declared a UNESCO Human Heritage Site. 2000. Cataloguing BCIN 2044-ZA