(Rome) Le ministère italien de la Culture a annoncé mardi la découverte d’une luxueuse « domus » romaine vieille de plus de 2000 ans avec notamment une mosaïque « incomparable » composée de coquillages, fragments de verre et de marbre.
Cette « domus », une villa que se faisaient construire les riches Romains, se trouve au cœur du Parc archéologique du Colisée et est un « authentique trésor », selon le ministre de la Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, cité dans un communiqué.
La domus s’élève sur plusieurs étages « et ce qui rend la découverte exceptionnelle est l’existence d’une extraordinaire mosaïque murale […] incomparable due to the complexity of the scenes produced,” underlines the press release.
In the mosaic, three large ships ride waves toward a coastal town, whose walls are dotted with small towers and porticos, in a scene that suggests the owner of the domus was victorious in battle.
Unearthed by archaeologists who discovered a series of walls in 2018, the domus has several floors.
So far, only a few pieces have been explored and excavations will continue until 2024.
Situated around an atrium, the main room is a cave-shaped banquet hall, which was used during the summer.
The owner, a nobleman probably a senator, is also said to have created “spectacular water features” for his guests, using lead pipes placed between the decorated walls.
The mosaic dates from the “last decades of the 2nd century BC.” AD » and it is made with “various types of shells, Egyptian blue tesserae, precious glass, small fragments of marble or other types of stone”, among others.
We can also see among the vines and lotus leaves piles of weapons with Celtic-style trumpets, warships and tridents, “perhaps alluding to a double triumph, land and sea, of the owner of the domus.”
There is “a fascinating representation” of a landscape, with a coastal town and a cliff, simulated in travertine, facing “the sea crisscrossed by three large ships, one with hoisted sails,” the press release continues.
“We will work intensively to make this place, one of the most suggestive of ancient Rome, accessible to the public as quickly as possible,” promised Alfonsina Russo, head of the Colosseum Archaeological Park.