In Cuarnens, some ten kilometers to the east of the Lac de Joux, part of the main house of a villa could be investigated during a rescue excavation in 1974. It was found to the south of the village, at the locality Champ de l'Haut. The ceramics indicate that the house was built in the second quarter of the first century, and given up around the middle of the third (no traces were found of a fire).
Plan of the excavated part of the villa. Felka-Loï Zedda 1982, fig. 1.
In the south-west part a large rectangular room (S7; 11.90 x 3.30 m.) and a porticus (S8; 13.80 x 2.80 m.) were excavated. The columns of the porticus stood on its southern wall (part of a column emerged in room S7). The north-east part was made up of bathing rooms. Room S5 may have been the apodyterium. It was to the north of a cold water basin (S6). There were four heated rooms with raised floors (S1-S4). In the apsidal room S2 (7.60 x 5.00 m.), perhaps a sudatorium, many loose tesserae were found of a black-and-white mosaic. The praefurnium (A) was situated between rooms S1 and S2.
Aerial view of the excavation, seen from the north. Photo: Felka-Loï Zedda 1982, fig. 2.In the 18th century a funerary relief of a couple was found in the centre of the village. The accompanying inscription informs us that it was set up for Iulius Decuminus and Pompeia Regina by Iulius Valerianus (lost; EDCS-10800448). There seems to have been a second villa to the north of Cuarnens.
Literature
Felka-Loï Zedda 1982; Bratschi et al. 1982; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 387.
[6-Mar-2024]
