The roman villa at Maasbracht

<p>In the Dutch archaeological community, the Villa of<br>Maasbracht has become famous for the beautiful remains of<br>murals that have survived to this day. Almost all of this<br>material was found in the infill of the stone cellar, a veritable<br>time capsule that has been excavated with much patience<br>and care. Unequivocal credit for this goes to an enthusiastic<br>group of amateur archaeologists of the Heemkundevereniging<br>Roerstreek (HVR), amongst whom Ton Lupak and<br>Jo Kempkens. This was also the informal beginning of their<br>company Restaura, a specialist enterprise in restoration and<br>conservation techniques in Haelen, near Roermond.</p><p>The immediate reason for the investigation of the villa of<br>Maasbracht at that time was the development of a housing<br>project. It was located at the spot where since the 1960s<br>a Roman stone building was suspected. The first field<br>campaign in 1981 consisted of some four narrow trial<br>trenches excavated by members of the HVR (Willems 1982;<br>Van Dierendonck et al. 1987; Willems and Kooistra 1988).<br>These yielded amongst others foundation trenches of walls<br>and floors of mortar and rubble from the Roman period.<br>Evidently, traces of the preceding Iron Age as well as the<br>Early Middles Ages were also found. This was in 1982 cause<br>for the State Service for Archaeological Research (Rijksdienst<br>voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek (ROB)) to begin<br>another investigation and to investigate an extensive area in<br>25 working pits. The most important result was the find of<br>a stone main building of a Roman villa complex. In 1990 an<br>additional campaign was undertaken by the ROB whereby<br>three working pits were documented (Stoepker 1991).</p><p>After the excavations, the villa has been left on a shelf in<br>the front as one of the investigations of interest from Roman<br>times with the prospect of one day being further analysed.<br>When the opportunity at last presented itself, due to the<br>Limburgs Museum in Venlo making the financial resources<br>available, the University of Leiden in co-operation with the<br>excavation company Archol bv set to work very energetically.<br>Several other archaeologists were contracted in to make a<br>success of the analysis of the villa.</p><p>Table of contents</p><p>Preface<br>M.J. Versluys</p><p>1. Introduction<br>W.K. Vos and W.J.H. Willems</p><p>2. Settlement traces and structures<br>W.K. Vos</p><p>3. Pottery<br>E. van den Brink</p><p>4. The building material<br>A.E. Gazenbeek</p><p>5. The wall painting fragments<br>L.J.F. Swinkels</p><p>6. Animal remains and bone artefacts<br>E. Esser, F.L. Laarman and M.J. Rijkelijkhuizen</p><p>7. Glass and jet<br>S.M.E. van Lith and M.J. Driessen</p><p>8. The metalwork<br>M.J. Driessen</p><p>9. Synthesis<br>W.K. Vos and W.J.H. Willems</p><p>References</p>