Floor Mosaics from the “Sanctuary of the Nymphs and Aphrodite” at Kasnakovo (Haskovo Region, Bulgaria)

Abstract

The archaeological excavations over the last 15 years at the site known as the “Sanctuary of the Nymphs and Aphrodite” at the village of Kasnakovo (Haskovo region), led to the discovery of a new buildings, whose rooms were decorated with floor mosaics. The analysis of the results of the research on the architectural complex from the Roman period points with increasing certainty to a rich private villa of a Romanized Thracian family. The two residential buildings were richly decorated with marble facings, frescoes and floor mosaics. The earlier Building A functioned between the mid 2nd and mid 3rd centuries. It was burned and abandoned during the first major Goth`s invasion in Thrace in AD 251. Two of its rooms were heated with hypocaust. The fragments of small and relatively thin tiles found in them, made of colored marbles, allow us to assume that they originated from a destroyed floor mosaic in the opus sectile that covered their floors. Building B has two construction periods. The first coincides in time with the functioning of Building A. The floor mosaic in Room 8 belongs to this period. It is black and white and made in opus tessellatum. After the destruction in the middle of the 3rd century, Building B was enlarged and decorated with new mosaics. Until its final abandonment around AD 324 it had a semicircular courtyard surrounded by a covered portico with a colonnade, a large central room with mosaics, living rooms, a swimming pool and a bathroom with hypocaust. The floor mosaics in Rooms 2 and 12 date from the second period of Building B. Both mosaics are made in opus tessellatum. The patterns in both rooms are geometric, with similar compositions of diamonds and squares on a white background. The colors of the two mosaics are white, blue and red. Their stylistic features and data from archaeological observations show that the mosaics date from the second half of the 3rd century.

Keywords

• Roman provincial art
• roman villa
• mosaic pavement
• geometric motifs.

Kasnakovo’daki (Haskovo Bölgesi, Bulgaristan) “Nympheler ve Aphrodite Kutsal Alanı”ndan Taban Mozaikleri

Abstract

Son on beş yıldır Haskovo bölgesindeki Kasnakovo köyünde yer alan “Nympheler ve Afrodit Kutsal Alanı” olarak bilinen alanda yürütülen arkeolojik kazılar, taban mozaikleriyle bezenmiş yeni yapıların ortaya çıkarılmasını sağlamıştır. Roma Dönemi’ne ait bu mimari kompleks üzerine yapılan araştırmalar, giderek artan bir kesinlikle, Romanize bir Trak aristokrat ailesine ait zengin bir kırsal villaya işaret etmektedir. İki konut yapısı mermer kaplamalar, freskler ve taban mozaikleri ile zengin biçimde süslenmiştir. Erken evreye ait A Yapısı, İS 2. yüzyıl ortalarından 3. yüzyıl ortalarına kadar kullanılmış, İS 251’de Gotların Trakya’ya düzenlediği ilk büyük akın sırasında yanarak terk edilmiştir. Bu yapının iki odasında hipokaust ısıtma sistemi bulunmaktaydı. Renkli mermerlerden yapılmış, ince ve küçük karo parçaları, opus sectile tekniğinde döşenmiş bir taban mozaiğinin tahrip olmuş olduğuna işaret etmektedir. B Yapısı iki evreden oluşmaktadır. İlk evre, A Yapısı ile eşzamanlıdır ve 8 numaralı odadaki siyah-beyaz opus tessellatum mozaik bu döneme aittir. 3. yüzyıl ortasındaki yıkımın ardından B Yapısı genişletilmiş ve yeni mozaiklerle süslenmiştir. İS 324 civarında tamamen terk edilinceye dek yapı; yarım dairesel planlı, revaklı ve sütun sıralı bir avlu, mozaikli büyük bir merkezî salon, yaşam alanları, bir havuz ve hipokaustlu bir hamam barındırıyordu. 2 ve 12 numaralı odalardaki taban mozaikleri B Yapısı’nın ikinci evresine aittir. Her iki mozaik de opus tessellatum tekniğinde yapılmıştır ve beyaz zemin üzerine elmas ve kare motifli geometrik kompozisyonlar göstermektedir. Mozaiklerin renkleri beyaz, mavi ve kırmızıdır. Stil özellikleri ve arkeolojik gözlemler, bunların 3. yüzyılın ikinci yarısına tarihlendiğini göstermektedir.

Keywords

• Roma eyalet sanatı
• Roma villası
• taban mozaiği
• geometrik motifler

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