Slave quarters

[Robert]

Salvete Omnes!

For the themepark, I am currently looking at the development of a Roman villa rustica. I have the villa well documented, but there is a nagging question I could use your help with. Time is in the first half of the second century. There must have been slavequaters on the estate, but I am trying to find out how these would have looked. I will not yet share my thoughts here, as I welcome an open discussion. So, the question is:

Is there any documentation or archeological finds which shed light on how the (domestic and fieldworking) slaves would have been housed?

Hope for a lot of input to be able to do a proper representation of their living conditions and the items/furnishing.

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Robert,

I read somewhere that the houses in Pompeii had no discernable quarters for slaves. It was concluded that apparently slaves had no right to privacy and probably slept where they were needed, in the kitchen, in the stable, in the rooms of their masters. Maybe the larger villas with larger numbers of workers could have had rooms for the slaves, but then archaeologoly can't often discern what the function of a small room was: storeroom or slave quarters.

It's good to see that your plans are becoming reality!

[Epictetus]

Graeme Barker’s Companion Encyclopedia of Archaelolgy mentions research on slave quarters carried out at Sette Finestre in Tuscany and published in “Carandini 1985.”

The accompanying diagram shows rather small cubicles around a farmyard and a large single-room new addition that are hypothesised as being slave quarters.

Perhaps “Carandini 1985” has some information on objects found?

[D B Campbell]

Perhaps “Carandini 1985” has some information on objects found?

Unfortunately not in Google Books.

[Robert Vermaat]

Unfortunately not in Google Books.

Try this one for answers! As I wrote before, this author also thought that slaves could have been housed in cellae, which could double as store-rooms:
Slavery and society at Rome by K. R. Bradley, page 84.

This source (not online alas) has an article about the slave in the Roman house:
Domestic space in the Roman world: Pompeii and beyond, by Ray Laurence, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, British Academy, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, University of Reading. Centre for Roman Studies. JRA 1997.

Maybe this one?
The archaeology of Greek and Roman slavery by Frederick Hugh Thompson.

There is a lot more to be found, these were the top three when I searched for "Roman slave quarters" on Google Books.

[Robert]

Thanks, guys, this is beginning to shed some light on the matter. There does seem to be a clear distinction between domestic and rural slaves. Hoping for some archeological evidence on rural housing ....

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

At rural villae often the slaves were housed in little rooms, very similar to barracks.

I have excavated some villae here at the hinterland of Tarraco and such rooms have been identified. There have the walls without decoration or painted in a very simple way. There havent mosaics of such luxurious grounds; theirs grounds are made of earth pressed. In each room often is present a place for a fire, in a central position or in a corner.

In one exemple, those rooms were agrupated in a building around a central yard, as have been said. For a reconstruction, i'll bet for such a kind of building.

[Robert]

Salve Cesar!

Would it be possible to send me a drawing of the floorplan of such a building, if possible with the scale or the measurements of the structure? If it can't be posted, please PM me and I will treat it as confidential. I am trying to recreate the slave quaters of a rural villa, and would very much welcome your thoughts on this.

[sallustus metellus]

Ave,

A floorplan of the Villa at Settefinestre can be found in the reference at:

http://teaching.shc.ed.ac.uk/classics/r ... ustica.pdf

It also has a plan of the Villa dei Misteri at Pompeii which shows slave quarters.

[Robert]

Salve!

Thanks a lot! These are very usefull for dimensions of the dwellings. They seem to have been well incorperated in the villa structure.

[Nathan Ross]

On a villa rustica, there would have been a division between the housing of the 'house' and 'field' slaves. Columella, in De Re Rustica, says the part of the villa devoted to farm use should include:

...a convenient stopping-place for the slave household at every season of the year. It will be best that cubicles for unfettered slaves be built to admit the midday sun at the equinox; for those who are in chains there should be an underground prison, as wholesome as possible, receiving light through a number of narrow windows built so high from the ground that they cannot be reached with the hand... Quarters should be provided for the overseer alongside the entrance, so that he may have oversight of all who come in and go out; and for the steward over the entrance for the same reason, and also that he may keep close watch on the overseer... Cells for the herdsmen and shepherds should be adjacent to their respective charges, so that they may conveniently run out to care for them. And yet all should be quartered as close as possible to one another, so that the diligence of the overseer may not be overtaxed in making the rounds of the several places, and also that they may be witnesses of one another's industry and negligence. (Columella Rustica 1.6.3-8

The complete text is on Lacus Curtius, here: [url:3u7z5pga]http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/columella/de_re_rustica/1*.html[/url]

The villa rustica of San Rocco, at Francolise, has a substantial 'work' building adjacent to the main residential villa. The plan below notes kilns, vats and presses built around two courtyards; quite probably some of the other rooms in this complex would have been the slaves' cubicles described by Columella.





This same site also has a reconstruction of the Settefinestre villa mentioned above: [url:3u7z5pga]http://www.virginia.edu/president/kenanscholarship/work/archive_files/penley_chiang/Images/Villa/V%20Settefinestre/V%20Settefinestre%20Images.htm[/url]

Regards - Nathan

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Robert, did you get all planning permissions needed for the park already?

Hope everything succeeds...

question, in how much will you use ancient building techniques to build the villa ?

Or will you do it the Archeon style, fake faker and even more fake...... ?

Personally i hope you will choose the old method... with hypocaust, tubuli, mosaic floors, the works!

And, will you use volunteers to build things in your park?

M.VIB.M.

[Robert]

Salve M.VIB.M.

Onfortunately, we have still not been succesfull in finding a suitable locations in a municipality with the will teo enter into planning procedures. There is however some hope again, as we have succesfully presented our plans to a municiplaity close to Nijmegen, who supports the building of such a park. There is a suitable location, the owner has expresed interest, but it is eary days still, for sure.

Due to the fact that the villa and horreum will be used for commercial purposes too, the main construction will be in accordence to modern building methods. Having said that, the Romans use any old rock to build their walls and then slapped a good deal of plaster over it to hide the underlaying construction. So we are at least making sure we use the right type of lime plaster and organic paints. For the museal part and the bathhouse, which will be connected to the villa as things stand now (there is evidence for this construction in a villa found in the south of the Netherlands) we will be building a working hypocaust system, as well as the kettles for the bath water, as has been done in villa Borg in Germany. Mosaic will be used were there is evidence for them, such as the triclinium and stateroom, as well as in parts of the bath.
For the small fortlett, we will strive for a high degree of authenticity, although here also, it may be up to the building permit for the type of wall construction. We will do a partial open work construction in wattle and daub to show how the construction would have been done in Roman times. This will be one of the inner walls. The Batavian houses and temple will be done as close to the archeological original as feasable, except for the house were we plan to sleep schoolkids, we expect a lot of safety and sanitation restrictions here. As this house is not open to the public, this is not seen as a mayor issue, the outside will be the same as the other housing.

We will be using volunteers for parts of the buildings, mainly the fort, temple and Batavian village, but at present have calculated the park investment not taking a voluntary workforce or subsidized labour into account. That is just to be safe. Once underway, a group of volunteers will perhaps enable us to build more then the present setup, we also hope to add to the park during the years following the opening, but the basis layout and all the larger buildings will be erected before the startup. The agricultural slave quarters are one of the first buildings on that list!

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Id say try and get in touch with Paul Karremans of our legion, we might be interested in building...... \\

Do ut Des of course... !

M.VIB.M.

[Robert]

I have already spoken with Paul on this subject. But it is early days, still and a lot of water will pass through the Rhine before things get far enough along to really start thinking about volunteers in building.