Villa Rustica (Boxmoor)
In the Villa Rustica of Boxmoor is the remains of a Roman estate , which was excavated from 1966 to 1970 in some cases. Boxmoor is a district of Hemel Hempstead . The villa was inhabited from the 1st to the 4th century AD. Five construction phases could be distinguished.
Individual parts of the villa and a cemetery have been excavated on various occasions since 1837. In 1852, two mosaics came to light during the first major excavations. A first plan of the villa was drawn. In 1966 a school was expanded on the site of the villa, which in turn gave rise to systematic investigation of the ruins.
The first building was made entirely of wood. It was about 21.6 m long and at the widest point about 12.60 m wide. The building consisted of a row of five rooms with two further rooms, which were placed in front of the building as corner risers . There was a corridor on all sides around the rooms. One room was painted with a candelabra decoration. It is certainly the main room of the villa. At the beginning of the 2nd century the villa was destroyed by fire and replaced by a much larger stone building. Since the house was almost empty, the excavators suspect that the fire was started by the owners of the house to make way for a new building.
The new house was now about 42.7 m long and 16.63 m wide. It is again a building with corner projections and a veranda on the front. Several rooms were decorated with mosaics. One of them came to light as early as 1853 and was drawn, but had completely disappeared during the more recent excavations. Various rooms were decorated with wall paintings. In construction phase 3, one room was equipped with hypocausts and another room was added to the villa. Construction phase 4 dates back to the third century. The plan of the villa was retained, but the porch disappeared. Construction phase 5 dates back to the fourth century. The villa was now just the core block of a series of five rooms, with a corridor connecting them on the outside. Some of the rooms were painted. The outer wall of the villa was given rectangular support pillars.
According to the coins, the villa appears to have been inhabited until around 350 AD.
literature
- John Evans: Account of Excavations on the Sites of Two Roman Villas at Box Moor, Herts , London 1853.
- David S. Neal: Northchurch, Boxmoor, and Hemel Hempstead Station: The Excavation of Three Roman Buildings in the Bulbourne Valley , in: Hertfordshire Archeology 4 (1974), 1-135, especially 53-110.
- David S. Neal, Stephen R. Cosh: Roman Mosaics of Britain, Volume III: South-East Britain, Part 2 . London 2009, ISBN 978-0-85431-289-4 , pp. 296-298 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 44'25.2 " N , 0 ° 29'53.1" W.