The Roman Imperial Period

Evidence for activity in the Roman Imperial period is more plentiful at this site than for the earlier period. The zone continued in use after the end of the Etruscan period and progressed in the Roman Imperial period. During the reign of the emperor Trajan, in A.D. 114, a great thermal project was undertaken here, which took advantage of the local natural spring and/or the slope runoff of the surrounding hillsides.

This project corresponds to the second phase of the vasca. Inside, the southern part of the pool was found to be paved with roof pan tiles placed upside down. This sunken tiles area led visitors from the southeast entry downslope to the center of the large pool. To date, over 120 tiles have been unearthed, 31 of which have stamps of the "Vopiscus and Hasta" type dating to A.D. 114 while one tile has an unidentified stamp. One "Vopiscus and Hasta" tile has two stamps of that type and several sets of goat hoof prints. This sunken tile surface slopes down from both the south and the east corridors. Those sloping south to north do so at an angle of 3.5 degrees and those with an east-west slope do so at an angle of 3.2 degrees. The center of this depression was opposite a small shrine projecting into the center of the pool along the west side.

The tiles of the pavement are of various orientations forming decorative patterns framing the central shrine. Water exited the spring through the center part of the east wall flowing to the east or southeast, but this area awaits excavation. The original exit drain has been found in a probe east of the spring.

Questions concerning this pool to be answered by further excavation include:

1 What are the precise limits and dimensions of the pool? This will be studied through geophysical prospection in 1999 by Lewis Somers.

2. What was the limit area of the natural spring, how was the flowing water managed, and how and where did it flow out? This is now being written up. It seems there was an overflow outlet over 2 meters above the east drain.

3. What, if any structures, are to be found associated with this pool under the small vineyard to the north where the Associazione Geo-Archeologica of Chianciano found fragments of mosaics in earlier digs? Geo-prospection should help with this.

These questions notwithstanding, it is clear that in A.D. 114 the vasca was part of a great thermal project carried out in this area. The water flowed out of the pool to the east. Spring water also ran downslope toward another structure which appears to be a water tower, furnished with lead pipes (fistulae) which distributed water to nearby thermal structures.

Just downslope from the water tower are the foundations of a small bath (balneae) which was probably provided with water from the castellum. The bath consists of a frigidarium with two pools, one or maybe two tepedaria and a caldarium. Such a bath may be compared to others found around the Roman world such as the small bath with two tepidaria at Strathclyde in Scotland (A.D. 142-165). The floors of the tepidaria and caldarium were built over sub-floors and supported on round bricks called suspensurae to allow heat to circulate beneath the floor. Traces of two suspensurae were found in the southwest corner of the structure in the excavations conducted hereby Giulio Paolucci. In addition, he unearthed a stamped tile here dating from A.D. 114, probably the date of the construction of the baths.

Of special interest is one of the walls of this bath constructed of opus mixtum (opus reticulatum mixed with courses of brickwork). In place of actual bricks, the builders have used red sandstone cut in the form of bricks. This same rare technique was also used for the water tower, providing a link at least in construction technique if not in time for these two structures. There may have been other Roman baths nearby as well, most likely in the area of Struttura A and D. In fact, a small pool was installed in D using Roman concrete which is similar in form to a bath pool. Within this small pool a fistula was found suggesting that it was supplied by the water tower and cistern upslope.

The wattle and daub Struttura A was repaired repeatedly over the centuries. In the southwest corner the walls were redone in mudbrick of high quality. A crude entry was added on the north side to the main room with a threshold paved with reused tiles. One of the tiles exhibits a stamp as yet unidentified but of a type which project pottery specialist Archer Martin believes may be of the 1st century A.D.

Our excavation has left many problems for us to solve in future campaigns. The evidence suggests that the Romans enhanced an Etruscan spring and created a grand thermal complex centered on the spring. Perhaps the Romans learned from the Etruscans about the special properties of the water of Chianciano Terme and wanted to build a thermal installation with diverse balneae with different therapeutic properties in each.