The roman villa at Maasbracht: The archaeology and history of a Roman settlement on the banks of the river Meuse (province of Limburg, The Netherlands)

In the Dutch archaeological community, the Villa of Maasbracht has become famous for the beautiful remains of murals that have survived to this day. Almost all of this material was found in the infill of the stone cellar, a veritable time capsule that has been excavated with much patience and care. Unequivocal credit for this goes to an enthusiastic group of amateur archaeologists of the Heemkundevereniging Roerstreek (HVR), amongst whom Ton Lupak and Jo Kempkens. This was also the informal beginning of their company Restaura, a specialist enterprise in restoration and conservation techniques in Haelen, near Roermond. The immediate reason for the investigation of the villa of Maasbracht at that time was the development of a housing project. It was located at the spot where since the 1960s a Roman stone building was suspected. The first field campaign in 1981 consisted of some four narrow trial trenches excavated by members of the HVR (Willems 1982; Van Dierendonck et al. 1987; Willems and Kooistra 1988). These yielded amongst others foundation trenches of walls and floors of mortar and rubble from the Roman period. Evidently, traces of the preceding Iron Age as well as the Early Middles Ages were also found. This was in 1982 cause for the State Service for Archaeological Research (Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek (ROB)) to begin another investigation and to investigate an extensive area in 25 working pits. The most important result was the find of a stone main building of a Roman villa complex. In 1990 an additional campaign was undertaken by the ROB whereby three working pits were documented (Stoepker 1991). After the excavations, the villa has been left on a shelf in the front as one of the investigations of interest from Roman times with the prospect of one day being further analysed. When the opportunity at last presented itself, due to the Limburgs Museum in Venlo making the financial resources available, the University of Leiden in co-operation with the excavation company Archol bv set to work very energetically. Several other archaeologists were contracted in to make a success of the analysis of the villa. Table of contents Preface M.J. Versluys 1. Introduction W.K. Vos and W.J.H. Willems 2. Settlement traces and structures W.K. Vos 3. Pottery E. van den Brink 4. The building material A.E. Gazenbeek 5. The wall painting fragments L.J.F. Swinkels 6. Animal remains and bone artefacts E. Esser, F.L. Laarman and M.J. Rijkelijkhuizen 7. Glass and jet S.M.E. van Lith and M.J. Driessen 8. The metalwork M.J. Driessen 9. Synthesis W.K. Vos and W.J.H. Willems Reference