RUSSI
Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
A town 14.4
km W-SW of Ravenna in whose territory an extensive
Roman villa, altered and enlarged several times in the
Imperial period, has been found and explored. The Roman level, because of repeated floods, is now 11 m below
the present average ground level. No inscriptions have
been found to date, and thus there is no clue to the ownership. It is situated on the border between the territory of
Faventia and the Ravenna marshes, not far from the
important vicus of Bagnacavallo. A channel has been
found immediately to the N of the villa which follows
an approximately SW-NE course, and which can be related to the system of internal navigation of the Ravenna
back country. The villa, oriented N-S, was not far from
the ancient road that joined Faventia and Ravenna. The
road is designated as the Strata Faventina or the Strata
Ravignana in medieaval documents. Under the villa a
burial from the late Iron Age has been found.
Recent excavations show that the villa was enclosed
by a U-shaped colonnaded ambulatory, partly closed,
whose S side measures ca. 55 m, and measuring at least
170 m in its entirety. Inside, the complex was organized
around a central peristyle, flanked on the N and S by
rooms of residential character arranged regularly on an
axis. The rooms had geometric mosaic pavements. To the
N is another smaller peristyle, to the W of which were
other residential rooms with very ancient cocciopesto and
mosaic pavements; to the E was a large storeroom divided into aisles. The contiguity between residential and
functional areas is evident also in the rest of the villa.
Along the W side of the lobby, starting at the N, were
aligned several groups of rooms with mosaics. Then followed a room occupied by a small kiln for the manufacture of ceramics and a space with a well and a watering place. Other utilitarian rooms have been identified in the
SE corner. Such a lack of separation between residential
and functional parts seems to indicate the permanent residence of the manager of the agricultural establishment
on the property. The villa, although very large and having large peristyles and halls, is not at all luxurious, as
is indicated also by the lack of precious building materials.
In most of the residential areas the remains of painted
plaster have been found. The central part of the N sector
probably had an upper story.
The original building probably dates to the end of the
1st c. B.C. and employed wood for the bearing members
and structural parts. Toward the end of the 1st c. A.D.
the villa was considerably altered and several rooms
were added; during the 2d c. the structural part of the
complex was rebuilt in masonry. The improvements and
alterations, as well as the discovery of coins, provide
testimony that the complex was occupied until late antiquity. Because of flooding, the villa seems to have been
abandoned and most of the fittings were removed. It then
served as a source of reusable material, and in the mediaeval period became the site of a furnace for the calcification of stone. The excavations have brought to light a large bath building to the SE with pipes, basins, and
rooms with mosaics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. A. Mansuelli, “La villa romana di
Russi,”
FelRav 66 (1954) 64-68; id., “Russi, scavo di
una villa romana,”
BdA 57 (1957) 449
MPI; id.,
La villa
romana di Russi (1962)
MPI; Scagliatini, “La villa romana
di Russi,”
La villa romana (Società di Studi Romagnoli)
(1971) 117-42
MPI.
G. A. MANSUELLI
