Search Results (5)

The article is based on the research conducted by the authors. The houses from the ancient town discovered in 1985 on the Mediterranean coast at the location of today’s Marina el-Alamein, are among the rare remains of Egyptian residential buildings from Hellenistic and Roman times. There are few remains of houses from this period in major cities, including the capital of Alexandria. The ancient town, which functioned under the influence of nearby Alexandria, developed from the second century BC to the sixth century AD. Various types of buildings, relatively well preserved here, provide information on a reduced scale about the architecture of Alexandria, as well as the lives of its inhabitants. This also applies in particular to residential houses, their décor and colours. The ancient town of Marina el-Alamein can be seen as demonstrating solutions that are more common. The present article aims to analyse the preserved remains of painting decoration in the main spaces of houses and attempts to reconstruct forms and the principles of their creation on the background of better-known solutions from other regions. Houses in Marina generally implemented layouts defined by flagstone-paved portico courtyards, sporadically taking the form of an incomplete peristyle, and reception halls oikos, which could be accompanied by smaller adjoining rooms. Both the columns and entablature with the cornices of the porticoes as well as the walls of the main rooms were painted. Wall decoration was organised by geometric partitions, filled in variously. The aedicula that served religious purposes, placed centrally in the rear walls of the main reception rooms, was also polychrome. The painted decoration can be reconstructed from the preserved remains, as rich and intensely colourful, similar to Hellenistic and Roman layouts from other regions, but differing in details. Full article

Ochre-based pigments have been employed since the first artistic expressions of mankind, with widespread diffusion during the Roman civilization. Such prominent use influenced their technological development, focused on functional and aesthetic optimization through complex manufacturing procedures. Furthermore, their appearance is also influenced by degradation processes, sometimes driven by natural disasters such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, in which yellow ochres of Vesuvian sites were sometimes converted to red by thermal alteration. In this contribution, a multi-analytical approach was adopted based on preliminary non-invasive investigations complemented by laboratory analyses to characterize the painted surfaces of the tablinum of the House of the Bicentenary (Herculaneum) with a particular focus on the ochre-based monochrome backgrounds. The study was aimed at (a) reconstructing the original color scheme of the walls and (b) deciphering the complex decorative techniques adopted by Roman craftsmen. The analytical results allowed testing and defining analytical procedures for the discrimination between the original and converted red pigments. Furthermore, these studies indicated that specific decorative technologies were adopted according to aesthetic, functional, and economic purposes, including the utilization of various qualities of ochre with different compositional and textural properties, and the mixture of ochre pigments with other compounds. Full article

This article engages with the interplay of two-dimensional and three-dimensional wall decoration in Roman wall decoration of the so-called four Pompeian styles. Instead of describing the rapid changes in the use (or non-use) of techniques for creating perspectival depth in August Mau’s four styles within an autonomous development of decorative principles, either favoring surface over depth, or vice versa, this article will discuss the imaginary space/surface on the walls in relation to the ‘real’ space enclosed by the decorated walls and—foremost—their inhabitants as the actual referent of the decoration. The discussion will focus on second-style wall decoration, with glimpses on the earlier first and later third and fourth styles in a final section. Full article

Built in the second to early-first century BCE, the House of Leda at Soluntum, a city on the northwest coast of Sicily, was renovated in the first century CE. The most prominent change to the residence was the inclusion of figural Fourth-Style wall paintings in its dining room. The fresco ensemble reveals a particular interest in the painted depiction of stone, such as an image of Leda and the swan as a marble statue and trompe l’oeil blocks of colored marble and granite from around the Mediterranean. The house renovation was not wholesale since the owner also chose to preserve a number of decorative elements from the earlier, Hellenistic-era phase of the residence, including two sculptures, cut-limestone pavements, and an intricate mosaic of an astronomical instrument. In this article I argue that the tension created between the medium of paint, and its use to mimic marble and stone, resulted in a unified, mixed-media domestic ensemble. The viewer was encouraged to compare and contrast the faux marble and stone in the dining room’s Fourth-Style frescoes with the Hellenistic-era marble and stone artworks throughout the rest of the house. This juxtaposition of older and newer decorative elements reveals that the owner of the House of Leda positioned himself as both a member of the Roman provincial elite as well as a local benefactor and custodian of Sicily’s rich Hellenistic culture. Full article

This article’s main objective is to present some results of a study carried out in Castro de Terronha, located in the Union of Cardielos and Serreleis parishes, county and district of Viana do Castelo, North of Portugal. This settlement was discovered and excavated in 2000 by the archeology company Perennia Monumenta under the scientific direction of Francisco Queiroga. The text focuses on the analysis of structures and indigenous ceramic and lithic remains discovered in sector A. The seven circular structures under study correspond to probable housing structures. Three of them have a vestibule attached. These would be about 5–6 m in diameter—a device of reasonable quality. Also found was a section of wall that ends abruptly, adjoining a great outcrop. Most of the ceramic specimens in articulation with the architectures revealed numerous similarities in morphological, technical and decorative terms with that of the Late Iron Age and the beginnings of Romanization in the Cávado Basin River. The set of remains suggests this settlement was involved in subsistence activities, metallurgy and trade. Full article