ST-ULRICH
Moselle, France.
In the commune
of Dolving 4 km NW of Sarrebourg. A Gallo-Roman
estate, the greater part of which is in the territory of
Dolving, the rest in that of Haut-Clocher.
A large villa was excavated in 1894-97; 117 rooms
were counted but the total is higher, as excavation was
not complete. The villa consists of six sections, four
living areas, one for baths, and an outlying building.
The earlier plan is related to certain Pompeian villas;
toward the Flavian period a new, more open construction
called provincial was added on the S to the original.
Deep excavations since 1968 have yielded pottery indicating a first settlement in the late Julio-Claudian period. Later changes included raising the level of the baths more than 1.8 m, probably towards the end of the
3d c.
The St-Ulrich estate was discovered only about 20
years ago, but 32 buildings have been found, besides the
villa. In the W the remains appear to be covered with
alluvial deposits; the excavated section, mostly in the
NE, covers some 100 ha. The St-Ulrich estate may be
compared with that of Anthée, in the Belgian province
of Namur, but the great villa of St-Ulrich stands on
the W boundary, that at Anthée on the E. The buildings are arranged in a more orderly fashion at Anthée,
aligned on two parallel lines starting from the villa,
while those at St-Ulrich are scattered in a fan E of the
main house. The Anthée estate was more or less industrial in character, while that of St-Ulrich was more
occupied with agriculture and crafts: its purpose was to
provide everything necessary to the life of the villa.
Three sites have been excavated since 1963. The first
is a small villa 16 m square with two hypocausts, which
apparently was occupied at three different periods. The
second is a small native fanum dedicated to some god
of the springs, a rectangular sanctuary (8.15 x 6.77 m)
with one surrounding wall, also rectangular. The cella
was simply a small shelter with a roof supported by four
wooden posts. A votive gift had been placed in each
post-hole (a coin or the skeleton of a small animal).
Most of the potsherds found there come from ewers.
Finally, a rectangular structure (24.7 x 10.5 m) was
excavated; it, too, showed signs of three periods of occupation, the first two given over to agriculture, the
last to crafts (forge). Pottery shows that the first stage
dates from the late Julio-Claudian period. The building
was abandoned in the 4th c., as was the small villa; the
fanum was apparently used only in Trajan's reign and
part of Hadrian's (coins and pottery).
The Sarrebourg museum has an archaeological collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. Wichmann, “Die römische Villa in
St. Ulrich bei Saarburg i.L.,”
Annuaire de la Sté d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Lorraine 10 (1898) 171ff; M.
Lutz, “La région de la Haute-Sarre à l'époque romaine,” ibid. 65 (1966) 14ff.
M. LUTZ
