Roman vehicles

This study discusses the discovery and excavation of a particularly fascinating Roman Period burial representing a rare mortuary rite alongside its preliminary assessment. The burial was discovered by a local archaeology enthusiast on the outskirts of Belvárdgyula: the following excavation in autumn 2021 brought to light a grave pit containing a carriage with a horse team and the burial of a harnessed saddle horse. The carriage is noteworthy not only for its Bacchic bronze sculptural ornamentation and its structural elements but also because of the burial mode involving the partial deposition of carriage components and the yoke, enabling the reconstruction of the horse team. The horse burial provided yet another example of a Pannonian saddle horse interred with an openwork bronze harness fitting set. Both graves yielded a surprisingly high amount of organic remains (wood, leather, and textile) that have enriched our knowledge of the period's horse harnesses and team-drawn carriages. The burials uncovered at Belvárdgyula have added new details to our overall picture of the local native population of eastern Transdanubia, particularly regarding carriage graves, a distinctive burial type that differs markedly from the funerary rites of Roman-type interments.

This study discusses the discovery and excavation of a particularly fascinating Roman Period burial representing a rare mortuary rite alongside its preliminary assessment. The burial was discovered by a local archaeology enthusiast on the outskirts of Belvárdgyula: the following excavation in autumn 2021 brought to light a grave pit containing a carriage with a horse team and the burial of a harnessed saddle horse. The carriage is noteworthy not only for its Bacchic bronze sculptural ornamentation and its structural elements but also because of the burial mode involving the partial deposition of carriage components and the yoke, enabling the reconstruction of the horse team. The horse burial provided yet another example of a Pannonian saddle horse interred with an openwork bronze harness fitting set. Both graves yielded a surprisingly high amount of organic remains (wood, leather, and textile) that have enriched our knowledge of the period’s horse harnesses and team-drawn carriages....

The theme of the “grotesques” and of the genre-figures has produced a big
number of studies over time; about the small bronze plastic of Northern Roman Italy, the aspect of the transmission of Hellenistic products or of the heritage of Hellenistic art was considered, especially in relation to the important findings of Industria. The aim of this paper is to collect and to examine pygmies and dwarfs, the kind of grotesques best documented in this geographical area, with different iconographies.

In 2018 it was reported that remains of three horses had been discovered in an area that had probably been the stable of a luxurious villa at Civita Giuliana about 700 metres north of the walls of ancient Pompeii. In 2021  another excavation close by brought to light another important find: an ornate four-wheeled carriage, covered by the ash from the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Though without parallel among other finds in Italy, it resembles vehicles from Thrace. This exceptional discovery represents a unique find in an excellent state of preservation.

Les Rencontres internationales Instrumentum sur le thème Les modes de transport dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Âge. Mobiliers d'équipement et d'entretien des véhicules terrestres, fluviaux et maritimes se sont déroulées du 14 au 16 juin 2017, au Musée départemental de l’Arles antique (Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, FR). L’objectif était d’aborder la thématique du transport des personnes et des biens, par le prisme des vestiges archéologiques mobiliers.
Les contributions rassemblées dans ce volume portent sur des sites divers (habitats, sépultures, voies et zones portuaires) localisés en France, avec quelques incursions à l’échelle européenne, en Belgique et en Italie. Elles concernent l’Antiquité et le Moyen Âge, avec parfois une vision d’ensemble sur le temps long, en diachronie.
Une première partie est consacrée au transport terrestre et prend en compte les véhicules (architecture et garnitures) et les montures (harnachement et attelage). La seconde partie concerne le transport par voies d’eau, en milieu fluvial et maritime, la mise en mouvement des embarcations, les pièces d’accastillage et d’ancrage, l’outillage d’entretien et de navigation.

Cet ouvrage offre au lecteur un aperçu inhabituel des modes de transport à différentes époques en accordant une place privilégiée aux « petits mobiliers » mis au jour sur les sites archéologiques, afin d’une part de permettre leur reconnaissance et leur interprétation, et d’autre part de visualiser par des restitutions et des expérimentations, leur place et leur rôle dans l’équipement et l’usage des véhicules, qu’ils soient terrestres, fluviaux ou maritimes.

Nel cuore della Sicilia, provincia che i Romani consideravano il granaio dell’Impero per l’abbondanza della produzione cerealicola, si trovano i grandiosi resti della Villa Romana del Casale di Piazza Armerina (Enna), dimora aristocratica risalente al IV secolo d.C. dichiarata dall’Unesco ‘Patrimonio Mondiale dell’Umanità’ per l’eccellente stato di conservazione dei mosaici pavimentali policromi che rivestono circa 3.500 metri quadrati di superficie. Realizzati da maestranze specializzate di provenienza nord-africana, come una grande enciclopedia del Tardo Impero questi straordinari mosaici ci raccontano oggi la quotidianità di quel mondo. Il poster focalizzerà l’attenzione sulle scene figurate in cui sono rappresentati mezzi di trasporto marittimi e terrestri, come le complesse rappresentazioni di battute di caccia e di pesca o le competizioni sportive, nel tentativo di offrire - attraverso l’analisi di questi eccezionali documenti figurativi - una panoramica generale sulla mobilità nell’Impero Romano.