Recent excavations in the Villa of the Quintilii discovered the remains of a unique winery just outside Rome.
The mid-third century CE building is along the Via Appia Antica portrays a sense of opulence and performance almost never found in a legacy manufacturing facility.
This exciting complex illustrates how the Roman elite fused utilitarian functions with luxurious decoration and theater to shape their social and political status.
I was one of the specialist archaeologists investigating this newly excavated site. The details of this discovery are described in our new article In antiquity.
The Villa of the Quintilii
We know from names stamped on a lead water pipe that the 24-hectare ancient Roman villa complex was owned by the wealthy Brothers Quintiliwho served as consuls in 151 AD
The Roman Emperor Dresser had the brothers killed in 182/3 AD.
He took possession of their possessions, including this villa, and initiated the long-term imperial tenure.
The place has long been known for its decorative architecture, including colored marble tiles, high quality statues recovered in the last 400 years, and a monumental bathing complex.
Less well known is an enormous one circus for chariot races built during the reign of Commodus.
From 2017-18, an attempt to discover the circus’ starting gates revealed the first traces of a unique winery.
A luxurious Roman imperial winery
This large complex was built on the starting gates of the circus, dating back to after Commodus’ reign.
The complex possesses features commonly found in ancient Roman wineries: a treading area for the grapes, two wine presses, a vat for collecting the grape must (the juice of the grapes with skins, seeds and stems) and a cellar with large earthenware jars for storage and fermentation, embedded in the ground.
However, the decoration and arrangement of these features is almost unprecedented in antiquity.
Almost all production areas are covered with marble veneer panels. Even the tread, which is usually coated with a waterproof coating coccio pesto Gypsum, is covered with red breccia marble. This luxurious material, combined with its impracticality (it is very slippery when wet, unlike plaster), conveys the extreme sense of luxury.
Two mighty mechanical lever presses Sit on either side of the treading surface to squeeze the grape pulp that has already been treaded.
The size and scale of these presses working harmoniously up and down would have added to the theater of the production process.
The grape juice, obtained by treading and pressing, flowed from these areas into a long rectangular vat, where an imprint of a stamp named the briefly reigning emperor Gordian (deposed 244 AD). This confirms a construction or renovation date.
But this is where the real performance would have started.
The liquid grape must poured out of the vat like a striking fountain and through a facade about one meter high, which is strongly reminiscent of a Roman nymphaeum (a monumental ornate fountain).
While must flowed from the three central niches, water flowed from the two ends and was then channeled back underground through a system of lead pipes.
This niche facade was originally clad in a decorative veneer of variegated white, black, gray and red marble. Some pieces remain attached and others have been found loose in the excavated strata.
A system of thin white marble open channels channeled the grape must from the façade to an open-air cellar area.
Here it was buried in 16 clay jars (dolia defossa) large enough for one person to fit inside. The remains of 8 were uncovered during excavations.
Arranged around the basement were three rooms paved with opulent geometric marble tiling similar to those found in other areas of the villa.
One could imagine the emperor and his entourage sitting back, eating and watching the spectacle of the production and tasting of freshly pressed must.
Theatrical vintage ritual in ancient Italy
For the only other example of this setup, see Villa Magna50 km southeast at Anagni.
This similarly opulent, marble-clad winery began operations just before the Villa of the Quintilii from the early second to early third centuries AD, with a dining area that afforded a view of the production rooms.
In Marcus Aurelius‘ letters to his teacher frontowe get a rare glimpse into the activities of the Villa Magna around AD 140-145. He describes the imperial feast while watching and listening to the workers stomping grapes.
It is likely that this was part of a harvest ritual associated with the ceremonial opening of the harvest. Perhaps this ritual also took place in the somewhat later villa of the Quintilii complex.
Magnificent rooms lined with marble marked areas suitable for the imperial party, and the winery was the “theater” for this sacred performance.
An intriguing question remains unanswered: was the Roman Emperor’s spectacular, ritual winery moved from the Villa Magna to the Villa of the Quintilii in the early third century AD?
Emlyn Dodd, Lecturer in Classics, Institute for Classics, University of London; Deputy Director of Archaeology, British School in Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University
This article is republished by The conversation under a Creative Commons license. read this original article.
