Aportaciones del mundo helenístico a una tipología de hábitat rural romano: casas – torre y casas fortificadas

This is an interdisciplinary study, taking account of the archaeological data as well as the textual and iconographical sources. The presence of the tower in the rural house (or the tower as rural house) defines a crosscultural architectural type that must be placed in the context of a Mediterranean koine. From the Archaism to the Imperial period, this type remains as an ideal solution to the needs and challenges of the rural evironment, thanks to its versatility and multifunctionality, as stated by the written sources.In archaic and classical Greece there is a widespread type of rural house with a tower, sometimes fortified, with a defensive, but not military function. Another, more considerable type, is the 4-tower house (tetrapyrgion): akin to the aristocratic house, it develops into the hellenistic (later Imperial) palace. In Italy, some of the earliest villae have elements of fortification, including towers. Later, these remain as fossilized or symbolic features: status marks, belvedere, exotic or purely decorative.In Hispania, Republican and early Imperial fortified houses in the Lusitania and Baetica provinces are considered, alongside more isolated examples like the villae with tower at  Torre del Moré (Catalonia) and Murias de Beloño (Asturias); the villa de la Olmeda (Castilia); and the mosaic representations of villae with towers.