Gerpinnes
A large Gallo-Roman villa, ca. 10 km SE of Charleroi. The main building and annexes were excavated in 1875 but did not yield valid data for precise dating. The construction of the main building shows signs of several phases of occupation. Originally it had a large rectangular room in the middle, flanked by two projecting corner rooms joined by a portico. The corner room on the E side was built over a cellar. Later, a series of smaller rooms was added to the E, W, and S sides, but a large passageway was made in the SE corner that led to the great central hall; it probably housed vehicles and tools. The W wing rooms very likely were used as stables. The living quarters—originally the two projecting corner rooms—were moved to the N wing: a number of fragments of a mural plaster decorated with frescos were found there. None of the rooms in this central building had a hypocaust. To the S of the main building by the banks of the Biesme, which ran along the edge of the estate, some bath buildings were erected, with caldarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium. A little farther away, the solid foundations of a small rectangular building were discovered; this may have been a barn, shaped like a tower. Gerpinnes lies in a region rich in quarries and iron-ore deposits; thus it seems likely that the occupants of the villa engaged not only in agriculture and stock farming but in iron smelting and stone quarrying. Not far from the villa, but on the other side of the Biesme, a burial vault was unearthed in 1960. It was made of small limestone rocks (60 x 70 cm) and contained a relatively large quantity of grave gifts: a dozen pottery vases, fibulas, and four coins. Perhaps originally built under a tumulus, the tomb dates from the end of the 2d c.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. De Maeyer, De Romeinsche Villa's in België (1937) passim, esp. pp. 85-87P; id., De overblijfselen der Romeinsche Villa's in België (1940) 62-65; R. Brulet, “Gerpinnes: sépulture gallo-romaine,” Helinium 8 (1968) 269-76.
S. J. DE LAET