Roman Villa Excavation

Our research area is located on the outskirts of the village of Rapoltu Mare (Hunedoara County, Romania), in Southern Transylvania, and finds itself situated between the richest gold deposits in Europe, and an even richer history. From the Dacian Kingdom’s political and religious capital of Sarmizegetsu Regia and its fortified satellites in the Carpathian Mountains, to the Roman capital of the Dacian provinces and the first Roman city north of the Danube, Sarmizegetusa Ulpia Traiana, southwestern Transylvania's history found itself a region with a complex political and economic landscape, backed by a highly integrated military. During the Roman colonial occupation, 102-271AD, our target area reflects a very dynamic and intensive synthesis of Roman provincial life, wherein a multitude of processes of both colonization and creolization take place side by side.
Bordering to the south the Gold Mountains and their extraordinarily well preserved Roman mining town of Alburnus Maior (Rosia Montana); the importance of this area is further enhanced by the immediate proximity of the Mures River, Transylvania's most navigable waterway,and intertwines with imperial roads coming from Sarmizegetusa to Apulum (Alba Iulia), the capital of Dacia Apulensis. The region was intensely populated by a great variety of settlements, ranging from small towns (municipia) to villages (vici), to small river harbors and road way stations (manisones and cauponae). The multitude of mineral and thermal springs in the area led to an explosion of baths in the nearby areas of Aquae (Calan) and Germisara (Geoagiu Bai), creating a unique Roman provincial life, and led to many villae rusticae in the area.