In 1906 and 1907 baths of a villa were excavated in Niedergösgen (to the north-east of Olten) at the locality Bühlacker. The excavation was led by Eugen Tatarinoff and Alexander Furrer. The building was erected around 100 AD, enlarged in the late second century, and abandoned in the middle of the third century.
Views of the excavation. Photos: Tatarinoff 1908, Abb. 55 and 58; AdS 4 (1981), Abb. 4.
On the bottom photo Alexander Furrer is standing to the right, on a wall, wearing a hat.
Plan of the baths. Tatarinoff 1908, Abb. 51.
The building formed a rectangle measuring 15.50 x 8.50 m., to which a cold water basin (B; 3.50 m. wide) was added. Room A must have been the frigidarium. A few rooms were heated (Ci-Ciii and D). On a few slabs from these rooms were graffiti, including a deer. Hall E could have been the apodyterium. Rooms A and C had floors with black-and-white mosaics. In rooms B and D fragments of paintings were found, of fishes, and of garlands and vegetative motifs on a white background. Among the finds was a bronze fitting for a knife sheath from the workshop of Gemellianus in Aquae Helveticae (Baden AG).
Left: a mosaic fragment from room A. Tatarinoff 1908, Abb. 52. Right: a slab with an incised deer. Photo: Tatarinoff 1908, Abb. 105.
Literature
Tatarinoff 1908; Drack 1950, 100-101; Von Gonzenbach 1961, 150-153; Archäologie der Schweiz 4 (1981), 88-89; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 451; Drack-Fellmann 1991, 236.
[5-Jan-2024]
