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Roman Villa

The word Latin villa means land comprising an area of farm buildings and housing. We distinguish, in Roman times, the country villa of the suburban villa.

Summary

Roman Villa

Main article: Suburban Villa.
  • Villa rustica : This term has several meanings. It is either a small farm, where the residential portion does not luxurious amenities, or part of a large villa devoted to agriculture (farm buildings and housing staff). In this second case, the term pars rustica is more often used.
  • Villa urbana : again two meanings are in use. It may be a suburban residence ( suburban villa ), or the portion reserved for the master's residence. In this second case, the term is generally used pars urbana.
  • Villa Marine typology of buildings in this resort since the Roman Empire in the most suggestive places of the coasts (eg on the coast Amalfi ).

Villa and Romanization

Roman villa, building paved gathering some residential monumentalized in Roman and part farm, has long been seen as the most significant element of the Romanization of the countryside. The importance attached to a villa explained partly by the archaeological visibility of this building type. The stone walls are easier to see by aerial survey, and long archaeological techniques were unaware identify and exhume the remains of wooden buildings. It is explained partly by the formation of a Roman historiography emphasizing contributions in the provinces. With the proliferation of aerial surveys and also on the ground, digging with stripping on large surfaces, but with changing conceptions of romanization , the place of the Roman villa in the countryside of the Roman Empire was heavily redesigned.

Emphasis is now more about the diversity of farms, the very definition of the villa as a potential problem to the next level - how to differentiate a very large villa in a small town high school - at lower level - when going on one of the modest farm house converted native? Recent archaeological investigations have revealed a wide spectrum of very different situations: it is possible to develop a complex typology of villas and must be taken into account alongside them on many farms and many more simple but that they are not necessarily subordinate. Thus a study of the villas in the territory Arverne reveals side of 134 villas (type A and B), 156 sites not testifying aesthetic amenities or luxurious villa can talk about . The reasons for this rather general are discussed: consequences of economic change? a concentration of land ownership? Or consequences of demographic change (it is after the Antonine plague )? It should also be careful not to cover local and regional developments are sometimes very different behind a very general statement.

Roman villa can not summarize the evolution itself and the Romanization of campaigns in the provinces of the empire. They are nevertheless a significant element that should not necessarily be seen as a sign of a break with the previous period. Thus "the Gallo-Roman villas in the plain of Limagne often than not the result of a buildup" in the Roman "pre-existing structures belonging to the elite Arverne" . They also demonstrate the integration of rural areas in a socially and economically transformed. If villas are not distributed preferentially on certain soils and that are not near urban centers, the spatial analysis of networks Villae often reveals the importance of proximity to a main communication road or river. Owners should also contribute to road maintenance. The large villa in the Jura Tourmont may be an example of this proximity between house and road, located on the Lyon-Strasbourg route it is between the location of two milestones . This finding overlaps with the archaeological evidence from other historical sources. Varro stated that proximity to a passable road or a waterway increased value of land .

In Italy

In Gaul

The Gallo-Roman villas of the interior of Gaul (outside the Mediterranean periphery, or, roughly, the province of Narbonne) are not strict imitation of the model prevailing in Italy. They have a spatial organization inherited farms prior to the conquest of Gaul, characterized by the scattering of buildings around a vast central courtyard (which contrasts with the plan "picked up" of Italian farms). The differences observed in terms of Gaul suggest the development of regional schools.

In Frankish Gaul, the term persists in place names (cf. cartulary of Saint-Cyprien) until the end of the Carolingian period. The villas and villas Merovingian Carolingian will die in the first estates or local fiefdoms living in autarky and traditional agriculture.

Examples in France

Examples in Belgium


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