El complejo termal monumental de la ciudad romana de Valeria: propuesta de reconstrucción virtual de sus ambientes fríos a la luz de los hallazgos arqueológicos.

Abstract

<p>The archaeological excavations carried out since 2014 at the Valeria site (Cuenca, Spain) have exhumed the remains of a thermal building built at the beginning of the 1st century A.D. The state of conservation is exceptionally good, with a height of walls that exceeds 3 m. This circumstance is due to the fact that the area in which the building is located was abandoned at the end of the 3rd century A.C. and its architectural structures were not subject of looting of construction materials. Archaeological excavations have exhumed the structures belonging to two different rooms: a western room, the frigidarium or cold room, and an oriental room paved with polychrome and geometric mosaics. The frigidarium, excavated almost entirely, has, on the western side, a natatio or indoor pool with a series of steps or benches attached to the northern and southern flanks. The excavation of these rooms has recovered about a thousand marble pieces of different typologies and provenances that were part of both the paving and parietal coatings, as well as abundant remains of mosaics and wall paintings that show the decorative richness of this space. The presence of glazed windows has also been proven due to the recovery of numerous fragments of glass, some of them still with remnants of lead. For all these results, a virtual reconstruction of the frigidarium is proposed, counting as base data with the conclusions derived from the study of the elements conserved in situ and those recovered in a controlled archaeological context. For the realization of the virtual recreation have been used textures, tonalities and decorative motifs taken from the archaeological remains.</p>