Remains of the main house of a second villa in Flumenthal have been found at the locality Scharlenmatte. They might be linked to remains in Attiswil in the canton Bern. Excavations were carried out in 1754 and in the early and late 19th century. The walls seem to have disappeared since. Among the discoveries were heated bathing rooms with mosaics and walls covered in marble.
Drawing of a bathing room with a polychrome mosaic. Mayer et al. 2019, Abb. 2.In the late 20th and early 21st century many metal objects were found in the area. In 1998-1999 a bronze female bust was found, an applique that was possibly attached to a chest with an iron nail. The hairstyle belongs to the third century. In 2007 an inscribed bronze brooch covered with tin was discovered. It carries the text VENIO SI DAS, "I come if you give". The word "love" should probably be added.
The bronze female bust. H. 0.101, w. 0.05.
Photo: Deschler-Erb 2001, Abb. 1.The bronze brooch. L. 0.038.
Kolb et al. 2022, nr. 363; EDCS-69000024.
Photo: Wullschleger 2008, Abb. 1.Two hundred meters to the south of the site of the villa two cremations were found in 2013 and 2018. The graves were five meters apart.
The excavation of the first tomb in 2013 (left) and of the second one in 2018 (right). Mayer et al. 2019, 4-5.Two large glass bottles had been reused as burial urns (h. 0.32 and 0.24 m.). The first urn was found in an oval pit measuring 1.00 x 0.80 m., the second in a round pit with a diameter of 1.20 m. The two deceased were a middle-aged woman and a man between 35 and 50 years old, between 1.70 and 1.75 m. long. The grave goods had been burned on the pyres together with the corpses: foodstuffs (for the woman mostly vegetables, for the man mostly meat), glass and terra sigillata vessels, metal objects, in the grave of the woman also an ivory bracelet, beads and the gem of a ring of dark blue glass paste. In the grave of the man a coin was found from the reign of Vespasianus, struck between 72 and 78 AD. The wealth reflected by the grave goods suggests that the deceased belonged to the family that owned the estate. They probably died in the early second century.
The two glass urns and some of the grave goods. Mayer et al. 2019, Abb. 1.
Reconstruction of a Celtic cremation. Mayer et al. 2019, Abb. 28.
Literature
Deschler-Erb 2001; Wullschleger 2008; Mayer - Deschler-Erb - Trancik Petitpierre 2019.
Plus: Archäologie und Denkmalpflege im Kanton Solothurn 4 (1999), 48-51; 7 (2002), 57-63; 10 (2005), 48-50.
[2-Jan-2024]
