Verona, mosaic floor of an ancient 5th century villa unearthed

During excavations to replace gas pipes, a large fragment of a mosaic floor dating from the fifth century was found in Montorio, near Verona. The floor belongs to the late antique residential complex known since the nineteenth century, possibly owned by Emperor Theodoric or a very powerful personage close to him, but there are no clear findings on this.

Traces of the villa had already been found in recent years, and parts of the decorations are preserved in the Archaeological Museum of the Roman Theater in Verona. This is animportant testimony from an archaeological point of view, as Verona Superintendent Vincenzo Tinè explains, but “the most logical solution now is the restoration, consolidation and mapping of the fragment, and then covering the area and restoring the street.” After the restoration, the mosaic will then be covered, because making an installation to keep the floor in view would be an expensive operation and not easy, given that “you are in the middle of houses,” but Tinè explains that they have "all the material for a three-dimensional digital installation that would make the vastness and importance of this site really usable and understandable, even to non-specialists.“ ”What is needed, however,“ he adds, ”is a venue and funding."

“For decades, pieces of mosaics, thermal facilities and residential complexes have been emerging scattered in Montorio,” the superintendent concludes. "It would be important to systematize all this collected information. There are mosaics from this villa on display in the Roman Theater, others in the Soprintendenza’s storerooms. Adedicated museum exhibition should be thought of, supported in parallel by a grouping of all the data in a virtual system, the only way that can enhance the grandeur of the villa that is now fragmented and hidden among the houses of Montorio."

Verona, mosaic floor of an ancient 5th century villa unearthed

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