A team of archaeologists from the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville has found a unique “floating” triclinium in the world at Villa Adriana.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousBanquets by the pool even in ancient Rome? This is precisely what a team of archaeologists from the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville (Spain) discovered when they found a "floating" triclinium unique in the world at Villa Adriana, near Tivoli, in Lazio.
Emperor Hadrian, in Villa Adriana named after him, was not satisfied with feasting in sumptuous, but common, reception rooms. In the majestic Villa di Tivoli, a Unesco heritage site, he celebrated with his guests on a "floating" marble slab. An incredible structure, unique in the world, has just been found.
The discovery took place in the context of the collaboration of the Order of Architects, Landscape Planners and Conservators of Rome and the Province with the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville. And it is seriously the most important recent archaeological find to have occurred at the site.
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Posted by Villa Adriana on Thursday, February 11, 2021
As stated on the website of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage (MiBACT), the aquatic triclinium was unearthed in the Palazzo area, where the nucleus of a republican villa from which the Hadrianic residence was built is preserved.
"What we found - Prieto explains to the Spanish newspaper ABC - is a nymphaeum, a monumental fountain: it is like a large swimming pool with fountains all around, with a few marble pillars on which the emperor Hadrian placed a walkway, also in Carrara marble, and with this a triclinium was set up, an aquatic banquet hall, where you had the feeling of float on the water standing on a marble platform ".
The recently emerged novelty is a marble triclinium, on which one could feast half-lying down, according to the ancient custom, but on the surface of the water, since the structure constituted a real marble island in a sort of nymphaeum.
“Villa Adriana - commented the director of the Villae, Andrea Bruciati - is today more than ever an active site of studies and a forge of knowledge and innovation. The Spanish team has found a germinal architectural element which will then be developed in the Canopus-Serapeum complex. Enlightened and ambitious, the emperor preferred to devote himself to a constructive design made up of large and wonderful works, from which the extraordinary and varied ensemble of the villa descended, in continuous movement and tension between the parts, reaching out towards an idea of perfection and completeness. The uniqueness of the site makes it a palimpsest changing and primary at the same time, inspiring in the Institute a project for the management and enhancement of the archaeological, monumental and naturalistic heritage based on interdisciplinarity and transversality ".
Sources of reference: MiBACT / ABC
Read also:
- Villa Adriana: 10 reasons to visit it at least once in your life
- Park of Villa Gregoriana: in Tivoli an oasis for picnics and romantic walks among holm oaks, waterfalls and archaeological remains
