air conditioned caryatids (a villa rustica as open air museum)
Date(s): 2008. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 40 of 40 Total. 5193 Visits.
1 Hechingen-Stein Jupiter-Giant column against estate
2 Hechingen-Stein Jupiter-Giant column against the fir tree forest. Base, upper part: the seven weekdays, lower part: Juno, Minerva, Mercury and Hercules. Overall evaluation: Nothing esoteric. We play it safe.
3 Hechingen-Stein Knight and lady
4 Hechingen-Stein Jupiter column. Top sculpture with lightning bolts. A defeated giant (one more Atlas) has to carry the horse, front part). Off hand: Caliban upon Setebos. Let that be an object lesson to the hired hand. Technical angle, enhanced stability. Long stemmed wine glasses (fetlocks) are hard to sculpture. Necessary subterfuge of sorts. A bas-relief (or even an alto one) will simply not do for a far ranging column top. The column is entwined by vine. The four weathered faces in the capital may represent cardinal directions or subdivisions of the day. The Jupiter column will also pinch-hit as sun dial, however unintentional.
5 Hechingen-Stein One more lady with cornucopia. Even a public restroom requires some kind of spiritual protection.
6 Hechingen-Stein The magic letter square conveys no lavatory related message. One of the spray can artists expressed his personal views on lesbians rather succinctly. As long as it is face saving. The original post, if any, to which the given lines may have been a response, is missing. - Cannot quite figure out the 'Asspo' word. Trade name of a laxative?
7 Hechingen-Stein I did not know that military battering rams were used for rubbling the walls of public bath rooms. Certainly one way to clean things up. The graffiti is probably copycatted from Pompeii. In any case strangely familiar.
8 Hechingen-Stein Looks very much like a hypocaustic heating system, cut away view into the crawlspace (escape from the dungeons of Zena, the coughing in the air duct, something like that). Facetious: just one more submersed Erechtheion. Hypostyle is hypostyle. (Peripheral: Even the fiales of cathedrals which could normally not be seen were artistically well executed.)
9 Hechingen-Stein Footwear. Just keep the 'purse' strings tight.
10 Hechingen-Stein This dress man would not look out of place on the ski slopes of St.Moritz. The tan is certainly there. Denouement, you have to think of something while fetching semi processed condiments for the soup kettle. The dinner guests are waiting. Just do not forget to remove the nifty sun shades first.
11 Hechingen-Stein Breaking flax. Far distant look. The actual tool probably made in Japan, only knee hight. The dried herbs hanging from the rafters (left-hand) could be Absinthe or Tarragon.
12 Hechingen-Stein Kitchen domain with soot grimy wall. The actual stove is just a griddle. Minor mismatch in the size of the corded wood, stored under the hearth, and the clearance of the griddle. A chimney/ventilation is mentioned but not implemented.
There is an easy explanation for the willowy dream figures. The mannequins are a donation of a cloth store (fashion boutique?), Kleider-Müller (Geislingen). That should also account for the corkscrew hairdo. - Could be worse. Many visits to popular museums are nowadays virtually indistinguishable from tunnel of horror rides. Selfsame animated spooks (minus the didactic tags).
13 Sumelocenna Griddle hearth and 'pizza oven'. The oven was fired first and the dough was inserted afterwards. (After a thorough cleaning with a swab.) The actual baking was done by the pre heated stones. (Ordnance assessment: Should not be too difficult to do that in the right order.)
14 Sumelocenna actual griddle
15 Hechingen-Stein Road side burial. Probably a hit and run victim. The Via Appia was rightly famous in this regard.
16 Sumelocenna The cortège. Different artistic representation, different museum.
17 Sumelocenna Looks as if you had to dig the pit before you did light the fire. Pre-programmed folding. The book of life is closed.
18 Hechingen-Stein The sacred grounds. The precinct is dotted with small chapels. About way station size (in the Via Dolorosa sense). Recast: One bus stop shelter per deity. (Only one has been rebuilt so far.) A small burnt sacrifice is offered on one of the steles. Very much a family affair, even as barbecuing. The most original part of the exhibit in my eyes.
19 Hechingen-Stein Sacred ground with overcast sky. The reconstructed chapel is dedicated to Mercury. (Funding is important.)
20 Hechingen-Stein The South side of the Roman hacienda overviews the Starzel valley.
21 Hechingen-Stein This Mithras altar belongs underground. It is a replica of the Fellbach vineyard find.
22 Hechingen-Stein This votive stone is dedicated to the Celtic Epona (the seated lady holding a fruit basket in her lap). Pose practically identical with that of Herecura. Epona, originally the patroness of stables and horses, was in time also invoked in matters of transportation and public road safety. Highwayman angle. The shoat is part of the sacrifice. The payload on the open wagon is unclear. Looks like a TV chair. Copy of a find near Ludwigsburg.
The original sculptures of this site were smashed to smithereens, beyond restoration, in the 8th century. Date has some significance. The wild Alemanni who overrun this part of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century, setting up their wattled and daubed huts at the very site of this estate, archaeological evidence, apparently respected the displayed Pantheon or at least ignored it. Why risk any supernatural retribution. It took an enterprising, Savonarola type politician, 8th century version, to organize the systematic desecration. The promise of bount...
24 Hechingen-Stein Herecura. Field fertility and everything else.
25 LMBW This well endowed Egyptian Isis (?) did not quite make it as virgin. Will pass over the bombastic Marie Antoinette head gear. Terra sigillata. > LMBW (Stuttgart)
26 LMBW This virgin looks much more acceptable. Possibly a wet nurse. > LMBW (Stuttgart)
27 Hechingen-Stein Genius pouring a libation on a small altar. The left arm is missing but a proffered cornucopia may be assumed. The head gear represents a town wall. Diana model. Protective connotation. The military version of a corona muralis was an award for being the first one to scale a wall. As long as everything cancels out. The guide board denies the existence of female genies. In a very narrow sense, only male genius locus statues are reported for the given time frame, probably correct. The more Barbaric the region the more muscular the tutelary guarding spirit. SUV concept. Judged by subsequent military history somewhat of a delusion. Genie angle, Madame Holle, Grimm's Fairy Tales, same line of business, home and hearth protection, was certainly female. Possible parallel: From dryad to figurehead but the gender was ousted somewhere along the way.
28 LMBW The original sculpture was found in Bad Wimpfen. Present location: Lapidarium, Landesmuseum Stuttgart.
29 LBMW Civic detail: the walled township as head gear. (A medieval variant would show a prior carrying the plaster model of his abbey in the crook of his arms).
30 Hechingen-Stein Roman coach. After some finds in Dacia (present day Roumania). Time honored leather strap suspension (strap hanging). The wheels are secured by two linchpins. The 19th century crank brake is a screaming anachronism.
31 Roman Traveling Coach The reconstructed traveling coach by C.W.Röring is one of the prize exhibits of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Cologne. Scale models have been spotted nearly everywhere. Nearly as common as jigsaw puzzle dinosaurs.
32 Hechingen-Stein 'Combined harvester'. John Deere forever. The distinctive 'paddle wheeler' rack (revolving feed in reel) at the front end is still missing. The cutter bar is there. Non reciprocating blade, push force only. Pliny the Elder reports their existence in Northern Gaul. Would have liked to see this one in action. Not everything works as intended.
33 Hechingen-Stein The shearing hight could be adjusted. (Probably also a copy. An original reconstruction attempt is unlikely.)
Deep time (before the Neolithic Revolution): The first combined harvesters of humanity were obviously the mammoth and the reindeer. Age old recipe for this particular kind of remote control: let them roam freely on the succulent prairies in high latitude and then knock them off in narrow gorges when they migrate to their winter grazing grounds. Holding the higher grounds always helps. - Past and present: Echeloned packs of combined harvesters driving out the animal spirits from the wheat field.
34 Hechingen-Stein Have no problem with this lock. (The matching key as inset). The key bit did push the five spring depressed 'tumblers' upwards. The key had to stay inserted while the bolt was moved (the cut out slit in the door). Some room for anti burglary improvements. (If you have mislaid your keys try a bent fork.)
35 Hechingen-Stein Dentist room, sort of. Every better hacienda had one. In passing, trust strategy (no value added tax on hacienda internal services.)
36 Hechingen-Stein Lungwort in the kitchen garden. Also known as 'Bugloss (Cowslip)' - Either name will refer to the leave texture. (Hardly any difference between the tongue of a cow and the lobe of a lung.) Tubular flower even as cowslip (and tobacco for that matter). Comfrey (knitbone) related.
37 Hechingen-Stein behind the exhibit, a stand of Ribwort Plantain (Ricola staple)
38 Hechingen-Stein behind the exhibit, another peristyle (non hypocaust related)
39 Hechingen-Stein behind the exhibit (overflow space?), wire secured linchpin, the axle extension comes with two possible slots.
40 Hechingen-Stein parking lot: it may not be too wrong to deduce a 'tailgate' celebration
