ANTHÉE
Belgium.
A Gallo-Roman villa, one
of the largest in Belgium, excavated between 1863 and
1872 according to the rather summary methods of the
time. We know the buildings in their final state, but it is
impossible to establish time divisions in their construction.
The group of buildings consisted of three courts, each
surrounded by walls. In the middle of the SW court stood
a luxurious H-shaped dwelling more than 106 m long.
The villa had 90 rooms and chambers on the ground
floor and probably had a second story. Several rooms
had hypocausts. To the NE was a bath building. The
NW enclosure contained no buildings and probably was
used for livestock. Finally, the SE court contained several
appended buildings in two parallel rows. Certain of
these also had been used as dwellings (there were mosaics and hypocausts). Others had served as workshop,
forge (to judge by the presence of large quantities of
slag), barn, shed, stable, etc. The suggestion that Anthée was the main center for the production of enameled
bronzes, especially fibulas and seal boxes has been accepted uncritically in most of the works devoted to the
ancient art of enameling. However, a recent study based
on a new examination of the archaeological finds and
on the archives of the archaeological museum at Namur
has proved that this theory must be abandoned.
The villa of Anthée goes back to the first half of the
1st c. It was devastated in A.D. 275 during one of the
barbarian invasions, was rebuilt, and continued to be
occupied until the end of the 4th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Del Marmol, “La villa d'Anthée,”
Annales de la Soc. Arch. de Namur 14 (1877) 165-94;
15 (1881) 1-40
P; A. Bequet, “Les grands domaines et
les villas de l'Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse,” ibid. 20 (1893)
9-26; id., “La bijouterie chez les Belges ous l'Empire
romain,” ibid. 24 (1902) 237-76; R. de Maeyer,
De
Romeinsche Villa's in België; (1937) esp. 77-83
P; id.,
De Overblijfselen van de Romeinsche Villa's in België
(1940) 229-37; P. Spitaels, “La villa gallo-romaine d'Anthée, centre d'émailerie légendaire,”
Helinum 10 (1970)
209-241.
S. J. DE LAET
