Escena de thíasos marino en el Prepirineo aragonés: el hallazgo del opus tessellatum blanquinegro del Forau de la Tuta (Artieda, Zaragoza)
Íñiguez Berrozpe, L., Uribe Agudo, P., Asensio Esteban, J. Á., Mañas Romero, I., Angás Pajas, J., Ariño Gil, E., Navarro Caballero, M. y Magallón Botaya, M. Á. (2024). Escena de thíasos marino en el Prepirineo aragonés: el hallazgo del opus tessellatum blanquinegro del Forau de la Tuta (Artieda, Zaragoza). Lucentum, XLIII, 169-191. https://doi.org/10.14198/LVCENTVM.23918
We present the results of the technical, iconographic, and iconological study of the bichrome mosaic found at the recently discovered Roman site of El Forau de la Tuta (in Artieda, Zaragoza, an enclave located in the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees, specifically in what is known as Canal de Berdún), chronologically dated between the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century AD. This pavement has a series of peculiarities that give it a unique character: its extraordinary state of preservation, its design based on an inverted bichrome with figures designed with white tesserae on a background made with black tesserae, and the iconography itself, with two amores facing each other over hippocampuses, dolphins and scallops. These figures and elements are typical of a marine thíasos, a wide-spread iconography in Thermal areas, or places linked to water. The room it decorated has been interpreted, for various reasons such as the characteristics of the mosaic itself, as well as the presence of a hydraulic mouthpiece and other solutions to insulate against humidity, as the uestibulum of a sizeable thermal building of which only a limited part is currently known, as it is currently under excavation. The recording and documentation of these facilities used diverse geomatic techniques of aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning. This methodology allowed the study of the exhumed structures to continue even though, for conservation reasons, they have had to be covered up again. The site also has a second early medieval occupation, known thanks to the exhumed materials and because a silo on the mosaic we are analysing here.
Key words. Sea Thíasos; opus tesselatum; white and black; baths; geomatic techniques; uestibulum; Roman town; Pre-Pyrenees.
We present the results of the technical, iconographic, and iconological study of the bichrome mosaic found at the recently discovered Roman site of El Forau de la Tuta (in Artieda, Zaragoza, an enclave located in the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees, specifically in what is known as Canal de Berdún), chronologically dated between the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century AD. This pavement has a series of peculiarities that give it a unique character: its extraordinary state of preservation, its design based on an inverted bichrome with figures designed with white tesserae on a background made with black tesserae, and the iconography itself, with two amores facing each other over hippocampuses, dolphins and scallops. These figures and elements are typical of a marine thíasos, a wide-spread iconography in Thermal areas, or places linked to water. The room it decorated has been interpreted, for various reasons such as the characteristics of the mosaic itself, as well as the presence of a hydraulic mouthpiece and other solutions to insulate against humidity, as the uestibulum of a sizeable thermal building of which only a limited part is currently known, as it is currently under excavation. The recording and documentation of these facilities used diverse geomatic techniques of aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning. This methodology allowed the study of the exhumed structures to continue even though, for conservation reasons, they have had to be covered up again. The site also has a second early medieval occupation, known thanks to the exhumed materials and because a silo on the mosaic we are analysing here.
Key words. Sea Thíasos; opus tesselatum; white and black; baths; geomatic techniques; uestibulum; Roman town; Pre-Pyrenees.