Archaeologists discovered approximately 4,000 new fresco fragments in a Roman villa known as Barberes Sur in Villajoyosa, which dates to the early 2nd century CE. Experts are conserving and reassembling these fragments of wall paintings that once adorned the villa’s luxurious rooms, which were built during the reign of Emperor Trajan, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
The Barberes Sur excavation covered more than 842 square meters of the large villa. The residence features lavish rooms arranged around a central colonnaded garden. Despite the collapse of many walls, archaeologists identified part of the original structure, including sumptuous rooms whose foundations have been uncovered recently. One wall survived intact, allowing meticulous excavation in one of the main rooms.
Because the villa’s walls were made of rammed earth, they are thought to have collapsed over time, both within the rooms and into the colonnaded courtyard. Today, only the foundations of the principal rooms remain. The mural fragments are being restored in the Vilamuseu laboratory, where teams have cataloged and numbered them to reconstruct their original layout.
Researchers have reassembled 22 of the 866 wall-painting fragments from one of the villa’s collapsed earthen walls. The restoration work revealed several motifs used in villa decoration during the High Roman Empire, including vegetal garlands, birds, and painted moldings. The reconstructed panel displays vegetal garlands alternating with birds and is topped by a molding featuring red designs.
Excavators found fragments of painted moldings and curved stucco meant to imitate fluted columns, made of curved stucco with decorative vertical lines. Other fragments from the site appear to have fallen from large columns that once supported the villa’s colonnaded garden.
Photogrammetry was carried out on each of the different stucco layers, which will allow the original composition to be reconstructed in the future. Once the excavation concluded, consolidation and reconstruction of the panels that decorated the room began in the Vilamuseu restoration laboratory.
The dig was conducted by the local municipal archaeology service, housed in Vilamuseu, and the firm Alebus Patrimonio Histórico. The extensive Barberes Sur villa had a broad open-air garden surrounded by a portico with large columns (peristyle). The residence included areas designated for industrial activities, consistent with the discovery of industrial spaces within the villa.
The villa featured an atrium with multiple rooms that were possibly occupied by household staff. It was built nearly 2,000 years ago by the Romans alongside the ancient road that linked the Roman city of Allon with the Marina Baixa region.
A 2nd-century Roman funerary tower still stands near the coast of Villajoyosa. According to Min Chen of Artnet News, the tower’s dedicatee is thought to be a prominent resident of Alonís named Lucius Terentius Mancinus. The Romans left their mark on the region of present-day Villajoyosa, with previous excavations unearthing Roman baths built in 85 CE in the vicinity.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.