In Coriglia, a municipality of Castel Viscardo, a few kilometers from Orvieto, a Roman mansio was discovered, located between the Via Cassia and the Paglia river.
The discovery is a sort of autogrill of the time, a rest stop with areas dedicated to the refreshment of people and the arrangement of means of transport. Located at the center of a crucial road network both on land, represented by the Via Cassia and the Via Traiana Nova, and on the river with the Paglia river, active from the end of the 2nd century BC until the middle of the 4th century AD.
La Roman mansion discovered during the archaeological excavations in Umbria, it had also been reported in ancient Table Peutingeriana, a map dating back to the 12th-13th century, a copy of an ancient Roman map showing the military roads of the Roman Empire and beyond, now preserved in the Hofbibliothek in Vienna.
What was discovered about the Roman mansio
According to the archaeologists conducting the excavations, the Roman mansio developed on an artificial terrace overlooking the Paglia river valley and just over 600 metres away from the current riverbed as the crow flies.
The site was frequented from the end of the 8th century BC until the Middle Ages, but towards the end of the Republican age, terracing walls and hydraulic reclamation works were built.
The mansio of Coriglia was a place of refreshment for travellers who passed through and offered them the chance to regenerate in pools of sulphurous waters which, still today, gush out a short distance from the archaeological site.
In addition to the thermal facilities rich in architectural decorations, there was an underground warehouse covered by a barrel vault.
The Roman mansion is part of in a network of stages placed along official itineraries used mainly by people and vehicles travelling on behalf of the central government, as also documented on the Tabula Peutingeriana which explains that in the vicinity of the crossing of the Paglia, there is a rest station called by the name of the river which leads one to assume that this is the site of Coriglia.
The site is the subject of archaeological work since 2006 from Saint Anselm College under the scientific direction of Prof. David George, who this year has been joined by Professor Amanda K. Chen of the Kansas City Art Institute”, but already in the first findings had surfaced in the mid-90s.
What was found at the archaeological site
Several artefacts have been found on the archaeological site terracottas, architectural furnishings of the thermal facilities and painted plasters and also over 350 coins, all kept in the Castel Viscardo museum.
The excavations also brought to light Etruscan finds such as leech-shaped fibulae and a series of terracotta and bronze votive offerings which testify to the fact that the Roman mansio was known even before the imperial age.
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