Roman Baths: August 19-30, 2007

Roman Baths 1

During the last two weeks of the 2007 season, the Roman Baths 1 team led by Marie Lefere (K.U.Leuven) and her assistants Aude Goovaerts (K.U.Leuven) and Hasan Uzunoglü (MSGSU, Istanbul) continued excavating the rest of the big block left for crane use in the possible second tepidarium. We continued removing the collapse layers (locus 157 in sector 2410-2375 and locus 169 in sector 2415-2375). During this week we reached the same collapse layer in sector 2410-2370 (locus 194). This layer, which consists mostly of tiles (mostly pedalis, 40 cm square and 5 cm thick) and irregular limestone rocks, is from the collapse of the roof of this part of the Roman Baths. Also important to mention here is the fact that we possibly encountered in this layer the remains of two collapsed walls, with concentrations of bricks or tiles (again pedalis) still fixed to white or gray mortar (between 2 and 5 cm thick) at two locations.

When we reached the inner part of the south wall in this room it was clear that this wall had suffered a lot from decay and destruction (locus 117 in sector 2410-2365 and locus 123 in sector 2415-2365; the borderline of the sectors just runs on the wall itself). Where most of the south wall’s exterior was supported by interior parts (built of rubble limestone and mortar), this part was either not supported or the inner part was removed in a later stage. The wall itself consists of several ashlars which are then supported with brick and mortar. During our excavation of this part of the wall it became clear that this wall was no longer stable, and we had to build a support that could then later be removed. The top part of this wall consists of five ashlars, of which height measurements were already taken in the previous weeks (see webrapport 3 for more details). Beneath these ashlars, as already mentioned, is a mixture of ashlars and bricks. In total five ashlars can be seen, these are the same ashlars as the outside part of the wall. The rest of the wall seems to be built of brick and mortar. The bricks are generally pedalis and the mortar layer in between is again between 2 and 5 cm thick.

During the last week of the excavations it also became clear that this part of the south wall was also supported by buttress walls, similar to the ones that could be found at the brick wall, which separates the caldarium from the tepidarium (see below).

Once we reached this south wall, we continued the excavations in sectors 2405-2370 and 2405-2375 in which we encountered the wall which separates the second tepidarium from the third caldarium. As already mentioned, this wall consists of a brick and mortar structure and we could see three possible arches. However, between the arches we could see several buttress walls. These buttress walls were no longer stable and required intervention by the conservation team immediately in order to prevent a collapse. The distance between these buttress walls is almost 50 cm. Also at this wall, in sector 2405-2370, we found a concentration (locus 213) of black, compact earth on top of the bottom floor of the hypocaust system. However, this looked different than the other black layers that we encountered before on the bottom of the hypocaust pillars. Within this concentration, we found a large metal artifact, probably a tool. While excavating in these sectors, at the side of the tepidarium we again encountered hypocaust pillars. We again made a straight profile, following the line of pillars. In between the wall and this profile, we found lots of big crustae were found, which probably were part of the marble floor in this room. Together with these crustae, we found lots of charcoal and took some samples of it for radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology. In this small profile we also found two nice floral decorated capitals, one still complete while the other had a little damage. Also we recovered another floral decorated wall piece.

During the last week of this campaign, we tried to reach the profile between the two pillars (locus 108 and 113) in order to finish the excavations. Two profiles were made and later this week supported by tuff and brick walls. The same was done with the other profiles and the hypocaust pillars, in order for them to survive the harsh winter conditions.

Roman Baths 2

During the seventh week (19-23 august), the RB 2 team, led by Christine Beckers (K.U.Leuven), Willem Hantson (K.U.Leuven), and Mustafa Kiremitci (Eylul Universitisi, Izmir, Turkey), continued excavating in the area west of frigidarium 1 (sectors 2415-2365; 2415-2370; 2420-2365 and 2420-2370). There they uncovered a small room that seems to be a praefurnium in a latest stage because of the presence of a small vault in the north wall and the pieces of charcoal along the walls. Because of the similarities between the east and south wall of this later praefurnium on one hand and the south wall of frigidarium 1 on the other, it seems that this room in its original building phase was probably part of frigidarium 1.

This room had three entrances. Two of them (in the north and east wall) had been blocked off in a later stage, but the third (in the south wall) was possibly the entrance of this room in its last phase. The north wall was made of brick, while the west wall consisted of an outer part in ashlars and the inner part in brick. The south wall also consisted of outer ashlars and inner rubble. The east wall was built up in rubble brick masonry.

At the end of the seventh week a sort of floor in limestone in the southeastern part of the room was reached. This limestone construction had an apsidal form which could be part of the original building phase. Upon this floor was a concentration of finds situated that mainly consisted of ceramics, faunal remains, metal, glass and crustae. All the layers in this small room really differ from the collapse layers in frigidarium 1, what means that the collapse layers in this small room were not a result from the earthquake in the seventh century A.D. but it seems to be an example of cultural deposition of waste in the last phase of the use of this room.

Although the excavations in this room were not finished, the team had to move to the part north of this room (sectors 2420-2375 and 2415-2375) in the eighth and last week (26-30 august). In this part the RB2 team removed together with the RB1 team the topsoil, erosion layer and collapse layer to reach the N-S profile between the two pillars of frigidarium 1. This collapse layer mainly consisted of bricks and tiles, mortar and rubble. The team uncovered here a lot of crustae, ceramics, faunal remains, and tesserae. At the end this last week the RB2 team was responsible for covering the mosaic in frigidarium 1, building protecting walls along the profiles and closing of the site.