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Of bathing pleasures and underworlds - new additions to the open-air museum park

Since the end of August 2000, a new area of the open-air museum park has been open to visitors (30). On display is the only bath-house in the Roman town to have been made visible so far above ground level, and the building which was probably the original reason why the bath was built here at all: a completely preserved underground well-house with a mineral spring.

Augusta Raurica was already known to have three large public bathing complexes (thermae) as well as a therapeutic bath and several private baths (balnea), located in the houses of prosperous citizens. These have now been joined by yet another bath-house, first discovered in 1997. It lies to the north-east of the town centre, in the valley of the Violenbach, on an important traffic route which linked the political and commercial hub of the town, the forum, with the districts which lay along the Rhine.

The bath was built towards the end of the 2nd century, at the back of a building which faced on to the street. It was presumably open to the public and would certainly have been appreciated not only by inhabitants of the local district, but also by traders and other passers-by, who would pay an entry fee to use it.
		Excavation in 1997

Like most Roman baths, this one had three rooms, each heated to a different temperature to allow bathers to increase their body temperature in stages. From the street, a corridor led into the cold bath (picture right: frigidarium), which also served in this instance as a changing room (apodyterium).
		Pool of the cold bath

After removing their clothes, visitors entered the parts of the bath-house which were heated by the warm air heating system (hypocaust). Crossing a small room, they would first enter the warm bath (tepidarium) and then, after an appropriate period of acclimatization, the hot bath, which was heated to a temperature of 40-50º Celsius (picture right: caldarium). The bathing procedure was rounded off in the 3 x 3 metre pool of the cold bath. For visitors who had more time and leisure, there was the option of visiting the circular sudatorium, which was rather like today's saunas.

Hypocaust in the warm bath

In spring 1998, archaeological excavations were in progress in the commercial yard belonging to the company E. Frey AG. As the mechanical digger was about to remove a thick layer of soil, it suddenly broke through into a hollow space - an event which marked the beginning of an archaeological journey of discovery into the underworld of the Roman town!

Excavation was continued by hand and brought to light a strange object, covered with yellow clay, with three openings (picture right). Visual inspection and a camera probe revealed a domed room which had not been entered for over 1700 years.

The upper surface of the vault after it had been uncovered. It was coated with a layer of yellow clay to stop damp from seeping in. Three ventilation shafts can be clearly seen, through which it was possible to get an initial view into the interior.

The people digging were struck by wafts of "Roman" air from the underground building, which was only partially filled with debris.

This is what the interior looked like through one of the ventilation shafts. The arch to the left forms the entrance from the tunnel, while the arch on the right leads into the well-shaft. The conical heap of debris slid down into the vaulted room (front) from the well-shaft, which had been filled in to surface level.

The building's unusual form and its marvellous state of preservation quickly led to the idea of conserving it and making it accessible to the public. Thanks to the cooperation of the land owner and speedy processing by the authorities (the cantonal administration, the cantonal parliament and the Augst community council) it was possible for the Canton of Basel-Landschaft to purchase the land occupied by the building and its immediate surroundings in May 1999.

During 1999 the building was completely cleared of the debris which had partially filled it. Excavations started from the tunnel mouth, which had been discovered at the end of 1998, from the top of the well-shaft, and from the place where …

The entrance to the "Augst underworld" after initial clearing work.

  … the roof of the tunnel had already been broken through in Roman times (picture right). As the debris was cleared from the vault, evidence came to light of a what may have been a historical murder story, …

The point at which the tunnel collapsed, seen from outside. When the collapse occurred, anything lying above it (including parts of a massive, stone-lined sewer) was bodily sucked into the depths. To the left, the tunnel leads into the well-house. It slopes at a considerable angle.

  … as no fewer than five human skeletons were found, together with the bones of several dogs and other animals (picture right). …

Human and animal bones lie tumbled in the mound of debris, along with the base of a column, probably once part of the bath-house building.

… Also, scattered amongst them, were found around 6000 small clay moulds which were used in the first half of the 3^rd century AD to cast large quantities of counterfeit coins. The counterfeiting of coins was evidently tolerated at this period - there was a shortage of change at the time - but nevertheless, it doesn't seem to have been altogether legal.

A selection of coin moulds. The coins from which the impressions were taken date from the first half of the 3rd century, with the latest, so far as we know, being minted in the year 246.

There is no doubt that the human corpses were being "got rid of" when they were put down the well-shaft; one bone even shows the definite trace of a cut. The well-shaft was completely cleared in April and May 2000 (picture right). In the process it became clear that it had been filled with a whole layer of animal corpses, with yet more building rubble between and below them, which may have come from the ruined bath-house.

Excavation work in the well-shaft - detailed archaeological work in cramped conditions. Luckily the water level was not as deep as had been feared at the start. At the time the picture was taken, there were still around one and a half metres of debris and animal bones to be removed.

The well-house complex was built towards the end of the 1^st century AD. It consisted, to begin with, of a tunnel at least 11 metres long and no more than the height of a man, and a well-house with a roughly egg-shaped ground plan and a diameter of about 3.5 metres. This was built like a Roman cellar, with large wall niches and shafts from ground surface level for air and light. We don't know what the first well looked like; the shaft we see today belongs to the second building phase.

Only a few generations later, in connection with the construction of the large privatly owned bath-house immediately adjacent to it, the complex was considerably altered: the well-house was given a vaulted roof made of tuff.

The vault is a good 4 metres high. In place of the ventilation shaft from the first building, which was only partially blocked off, four chimney-like air-holes were let into the new roof (top of picture right).

A panoramic view of "underground Augusta Raurica": we have come through the tunnel into the vaulted room and are looking at the opposite wall; to the left is one of the two arches leading to the well-shaft ...

The newly walled-in well-shaft is accessible through two arches, whose construction is worth a closer look. The arches are built of tuff, with a central pillar of sandstone blocks. The series of pictures (below) shows what the masonry looked like when it was first uncovered; come and compare this with the way it looks now, after conservation and detailed restoration!

Panorama - continued: we have turned towards the right and can now see the three niches; also visible, in the middle at the top, is one of the ventilation shafts.		A further turn to the right brings the wall opposite the entrance into view.		Turning to the right again, we can see the entrance from the tunnel and, to the right, one of the arches leading to the well.

Finally, we look through the other arch …		... into the masonry well-shaft.

At a depth of around 12 metres beneath outside ground-level, excavation in the well-shaft reached ground-water; in Roman times the water table may have been a little higher. Chemical analysis has shown that this is a rather special water source, especially for this region. It has a high sulphur content but a fairly low level of calcium carbonate. And standing right at the bottom of the well, you can tell this from the smell.

In Roman times, the water may have emerged from the slope of the Kastelen Hill, spreading sulphurous fumes. This may have been the reason for building such an expensive construction to contain the spring. Could it also perhaps have been the reason why the bath was later built on this spot? For water containing sulphur has been attributed with healing properties since antiquity - the Roman naturalist, Plinius, for example, recommended it as a cure for nervous disorders.

Main Augusta Raurica

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