Posted on 10/08/2008 6:00:16 PM PDT by BGHater
One of the earliest villas in Budapest is being excavated at Bécsi út 262 (District III), reports the Budapest History Museum. The site is of special importance, as it fits well into the line of villas previously found in the area, providing more information on the location and extension of villa farms around Aquincum, wrote Krisztián Anderkó, the archaeologist leading the excavations, on the museum's website.
Ruins of the Roman building complex were discovered following several months of excavation work at a plot destined to become a hypermarket. The Office of Cultural Heritage had ordered the excavation to be carried out, as a Roman wall was found under the neighboring plot at Bécsi út 260 in 2004.
At Bécsi út 262, walls of a five-by-five meter, independently standing Roman building were unearthed. The building was surrounded by a 45-50 centimeter thick wall built from limestone slabs held together by yellowish-white mortar forming a perfect square. Further excavations revealed that a larger building stood nearby, and the walls belonged to a multi-room villa.
A written limestone sign, ceramics, iron nails and bronze coins were also unearthed at the site. The earliest identifiable coin can be traced to the time of Emperor Hadrianus, while the latest to Diocletianus, suggesting that the villa was standing in the first third of the 2nd century BC and was in use until the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century AD. This makes it the earliest Roman villa unearthed at the foot of the Buda hills.
A birds-eye view of the buildings excavated at Bécsi út 262.
Roman’s ping.
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Gods |
Thanks BGHater. I'd not found time to post it. :') Hey, you want a part-time volunteer job? ;') |
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The original town was built on the site of a Celtic settlement in 1 BC (named Ak-Ink, or ample water).
Romans established their outpost on top of the Celtic town, as an early settlement in the north part of Buda (located today). At the beginning of the 2nd century AD, nearly 60 thousand people lived here, including craftsmen and traders who migrated over from other parts of the Roman Empire to provide the army with the necessities, residing in the garrison town. In the year 124 AD, Emperor Adrian gifted the settlement with civil rights and self government through it's own governor and civic leaders. In the year 194 AD, Emperor Septimius Severus elevated the town to the rank of Roman Imperial colony. Until 400 AD, Aquincum was the capital of the province Pannonia Inferior.
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