Winery complex discovered outside Rome

[guy]

Aerial orthophotograph of the Villa of the Quintilii winery building, indicating the treading area (A), press beds (B1 and B2), proposed press mechanism rooms (C1 and C2), collection vat (D), cella vinaria (E), and dining rooms (F1 and F2) (image by M.C.M s.r.l, modified from Frontoni et al. )

 

 

 

A winery thought to be build during the chaos of the third century has been excavated near Rome. This building complex suggests despite this period of societal disruption, the elites were able to continue their lavish lifestyles.

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 A recently discovered winery at the Villa of the Quintilii on the Via Appia Antica, near Rome, provides only the second known example from the Graeco-Roman world of an opulent wine production complex built to facilitate vinicultural ‘spectacle’. The authors present the architectural and decorative form of the winery and illustrate how the annual vintage was reimagined as ‘theatrical’ performance. Dating to the mid third century AD, the complex illuminates how ancient elites could fuse utilitarian function with ostentatious luxury to fashion their social and political status.

The winery of the Villa of the Quintilii, which conveys a sense of spectacle not normally seen in ancient production spaces, must post-date the reign of Commodus (d. AD 192), as its construction obliterated part of the circus dated to that emperor's reign. At least one phase of the facility dates to the mid third century AD, as evidenced by the Gordian fistula impression and broadly supported by the geometric opus sectile that suggests a date around the late second to early third century.

 

 

https://theconversation.com/a-newly-uncovered-ancient-roman-winery-featured-marble-tiling-fountains-of-grape-juice-and-an-extreme-sense-of-luxury-199670

 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/spectacle-of-production-a-roman-imperial-winery-at-the-villa-of-the-quintilii-rome/C3BFAFED7E6C5F14DBAFEB443EDB6CC2

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by guy