In the 1990's part of the main house of a villa was excavated in Kempten, part of Wetzikon, about ten kilometers to the north of the Zürichsee. The building was erected in the third quarter of the first century and enlarged later on. The rooms were arranged around a courtyard that had a porticus on three sides. A few sandstone columns from the porticus were found. In the third century a bathing room and a cellar were added on the west side. The villa was abandoned in the last decades of the third century.
Plan of the main house. Hoek et al. 2001, Abb. 1.
Sandstone columns from the porticus. H. 2.02. Photo: Hoek et al. 2001, Abb. 3 and 4.Many fragments were found of paintings from the various building phases, from the second half of the first century to the early third century. In the porticus the paintings on the lower part of the wall imitated marble. Above that were red panels surrounded by wide black frames. On the frames were vegetative motifs, stylized dolphins, and heads of panthers or lions. On the heads of the latter was a plume that is reminiscent of an Egyptian crown called Atef. There seems to be a reference to the cat goddess Bastet. Furthermore a priest of Isis was depicted: a man with a shaved head, wearing a white tunic decorated with two red bands. The paintings have been dated to the middle of the second century.
Reconstruction drawing of the paintings from the porticus. Hoek et al. 2001, Abb. 14.
Fragments of paintings from the porticus. Top: imitation of marble from the socle. Bottom left: black frame between red panels,
with the head of a panther or lion and the Atef. Bottom right: shaved male head (h. of the head 0.04). Hoek et al. 2001, Abb. 16, 18, 19.
Literature
Hoek et al. 2001; Käch-Winet 2015.
[18-Apr-2024]
