Roman Villa rustica in Sorviodurum
Already for long the ambitious romans were on the move in the Gallic and Germanic regions. The Mediterranean area and North of Africa was not enough for them, they wanted to go north. In the 2nd half of the 1st century AD their legions were also standing in Rhaetia. Nobody could stop them and they were about to settle in the northern parts of the Alps until the Danube. The “wet Limes” arose. Legionnaires, merchants, farmers and craftsmen appeared, settled the land and left their traces which tell us nowadays a lot about their way of living, the craftsmanship, the architecture and the art of war.
Forts and estates were built, most of them from wood. Therefore, they cannot be reconstructed today. A villa near Straubing, the antique Sorviodurum, has been studied very well and serves as model for the cut-out-sheet roman Villa rustica.
- 4 DIN A4 Sheets of fun in doing handicrafts
- Scale 1:87
- Level of difficulty: easy
Luxurious and practical was the roman Villa rustica
Anybody who visited an antique roman house before, knows that this nation loved luxury. The standard of living of a roman was considerably higher than that of a teuton of its day. The roman Villa rustica had a base of 48 x 24 sqm, two large groups of buildings have been combined by a columned hall.
The hall was connected with the atrium, a non-covered courtyard with the Impluvium. That was a tiled basin to collect rainwater. Below was a cistern located from which water could be taken. Mural paintings decorated the walls, at least two rooms of the Villa rustica had a heated floor – of course it was too cold for the romans north of the Alps. Therefore, they were heating a lot; these heatings had a complex foundation and needed a vast quantity of wood.
Various side buildings and furnaces to produce bricks belonged to the estate. Although the residents got vine and olive oil from Italy, a lot of grain and vegetables have been cultivated and they ran livestock farming as they had to provide food to the legions. Mostly former legionnaires received such villas at the end of their military service as a severance package.
Cut-out-sheet roman Villa rustica
She looked exactly as on this cut-out-sheet as the antique roman Villa rustica from Straubing served as model.
The cut-out-sheet of the roman Villa rustica consists of 4 DIN A 4 pages of robust paper and has the scale 1:87. Regarding size it fits to the other roman models which mean it can very well be combined to amazing groups of buildings.
The roman Villa rustica is not only fun to make but she also serves as a colorful object of demonstration for history lessons.
Based on the buildings students can learn how roman farmers and legionnaires lived almost 2000 years ago.
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