To the north of Ormalingen, at the locality Buchs, a villa was excavated in 1906-1908 by Fritz La Roche, a clergyman from Ormalingen. The excavated part measured 45 x 15.50 m. A series of rooms was found behind a porticus (12-13; w. 3.60 m.). At the north end a bathing room was added (10), with a hypocaust (a raised floor and tubuli set against the walls). Fragments of paintings from this room had a blue and green background, with white figures and with yellow, brown and black bands. In the room to the south (11) paintings were preserved on three walls. On the socle panels were created by brown and green lines and bands on a white background. Higher up were circles, blue palmettes, and green leaves and garlands. Fragments of paintings were also found in the living rooms. These had white, yellow, red, black and blue backgrounds. Among the finds were two small millstones, one of volcanic stone, the other of sandstone. The ceramics have been assigned to the second century.
Plan of the villa. La Roche 1910, 80.
At the end of his report La Roche notes that he suspects that more bathing rooms are situated to the north. He was proven right in 2017, when such rooms were indeed found.
Plan of the old and new excavations. Von Wartburg 2017, 47.A furnace was found (praefurnium A) with which the adjacent rooms were heated: a caldarium (C) and a tepidarium (B) with a basin (A). To the east was a frigidarium (E), also with a basin (F).
Plan of the new excavations. Von Wartburg 2017, 49.
View of the new excavations (rooms A-D). Photo: Archäologie Baselland.
Literature
La Roche 1910; Drack 1950, 106; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 465-466; Von Wartburg 2017.
[18-Oct-2023]
