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Introduction The inscriptions The funerary church |
Sion, on the Rhône, some 28 kilometers to the north-east of Martigny, has two striking landmarks: rock outcrops with the Valère Basilica and Tourbillon Castle. The site was inhabited by the tribe of the Seduni and might have been called Sedunum. Sediments and Mediaeval buildings destroyed and covered many of the Roman remains.
View of the Valère Basilica and Tourbillon Castle in Sion. Photo: Wikimedia, Belappetit.Between 1960 and 1964 rooms of baths were found below the church of St. Théodule, covering an area of 22.50 x 20 m.
Plan of the baths below St. Théodule.
A1, A2: apodyterium, courtyard; C, B1: caldarium, octagonal basin; E: channels; F, B2: frigidarium, basin; P1, P2: praefurnia; T: tepidarium.At the locality Sous-le-Scex, at the foot of the rock outcrop with the Valère Basilica, various remains were excavated between 1957 and 2001. Some of these seem to have belonged to a suburban villa that was used from the first to the fifth century. To the villa belonged small baths and an enclosing wall. A few tombs and a lead foundry were also found, dated to late antiquity. The lead came from mines to the south of Sion in Siviez and from mines in the Eifel. Scrap metal from other areas was also collected and melted down.
Plan of the area Sous-le-Scex. Haldimann et al. 2019, fig. 19.
A: baths; B: tombs; C: enclosing wall of the villa suburbana; D: lead foundry; E: fireplaces; F: half-buried building; G: landslide of the rock.
Introduction
The inscriptions
The funerary church
Literature
Sauter 1950, 141-147; Sauter 1960, 276-279; Dubuis 1984; Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte 69 (1986), 289-290; Lehner 1986; Lehner 1987; Wiblé 1987(2); Devijver 1987; Wiblé 1988; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 507-510; Drack-Fellmann 1991, 242-245; Antonini et al. 2002; Andenmatten 2014; Haldimann et al. 2019.
[27-Jan-2024]
