AD TURREM
(Tourves) Var, France.
About
50 km E of Aix-en-Provence (Aquae Sextiae) on the
road from Italy to Spain, a statio (
Tab. Peut., etc.) at
the foot of Saint-Probace hill, which had a fortified enclosure in the Celto-Ligurian period. The site has produced many remains of Gallo-Roman occupation, which
include part of a large villa. Several rooms with mosaics
are grouped around a peristyle, as well as flagged chambers over hypocausts with swimming pools, latrines, and
a household shrine. A second courtyard must have been
at the center of premises used for agricultural purposes.
This villa underwent several remodelings from the 1st
to the 3d c. It included a potter's kiln intended for the
production of tiles. The Early Christian and mediaeval
site of La Gayole (necropoleis and trilobate chapel)
attests to the continuity of occupation from antiquity to
the Middle Ages.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Forma Orbis Romani: Var (1932);
“Chronique des circonscriptions arch.,”
Gallia (1950ff).
C. GOUDINEAU
