Villa Dar Buc Ammera
About
Italian archaeologist Salvatore Aurigemma dug into this seaside villa near Leptis Magna in 1913 and found a floor unlike anything else in Roman Libya. Its mosaic strung together gladiators in combat, condemned men facing leopards, and musicians in one continuous strip of arena spectacle. Scholars have argued over its date for over a century, some placing it under the Flavians around AD 100, others generations later under the Severans. The mosaic now anchors the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Nearby
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