CATALOGUE

    WINDOW GRILLE
                    IRON 
Illeta dels Banyets (Alicante)

Iron
h: 72 cm; a: 49 cm; e: 3 cm
Roman culture
2nd century AD
 

Part of a restored window grille made up of fragments of three and four iron bars that intersect at right angles to create squares of about 11 cm on each side. At the junction of the bars, there are two 15-centimetre-long, cross-shaped guards formed by two pointed bars at the ends, whose function is to make it difficult to access the interior through the space between the bars. These protections are attached to the bars of the window by nails with a circular head 1 cm in diameter. The bars are rectangular in cross-section and measure 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick. The ends are not preserved, as they would have been embedded in the frame (made of masonry or wood) of the window.
Grilles of this type have been found at several Roman sites. Very similar is the one from Hinton St. Mary's (England), on display in the British Museum, and in Hispania those from the cities of Munigua, Pollentia and Mérida. The grille was found over the furnace channel of the Illeta dels Banyets baths, which indicates that it was reused to support the boiler used to supply hot water to the rooms in the building. Originally it would have been protecting a window in the baths building itself or in the immediate villa.
S.C.: 2150
Unpublished.