First preliminary results on the marmora of the late roman villa of Noheda (Cuenca, Spain)

Abstract

The discovering of impressive well-preserved mosaics, paintings and polychrome stucco wall decoration as well as an extensive assemblage of marbles has demonstrated that the Late Roman villa near Noheda was of exceptional wealth and importance. Even though its study is still in progress, the richness and variety of the finds as well as their implications on the role this villa played in Late Roman Hispania is so extraordinary that are worth presenting. The marble assemblage that has been discovered so far basically come from the two areas of the site and includes a wide variety of foreign marmora, both white and coloured, as well as Hispanic ones. Moreover, a differentiate patron of marble use seems to emerge: Hispanic marbles were used as wall revetments at the residential building while the balnea was exclusively decorated with foreign marmora.