Villa Rustica (Gadebridge Park)
The Villa Rustica from Gadebridge Park is the remains of a Roman manor , which were largely excavated from 1963 to 1968 and then continued in 2000. Gadebridge Park is located in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire . The villa was inhabited from the 1st to the 4th century AD. Different settlement phases could be distinguished. The remains were filled in again after the excavation.
A bathhouse with three rooms is from the first settlement phase, but no architectural remains of the actual villa have survived. Above all, ceramic on site indicates, however, that a villa or a village stood here as early as the first century AD. The bathhouse was expanded in a second construction phase. However, almost no remains of the actual villa have been found. The third phase of the villa dates from the second century. A large building with two corner risers was erected. The building was surrounded by a corridor and was approximately 41.45 × 24.089 m in size. For the construction of the villa, the site was cleared of older buildings, which explains that no older buildings were found. A cistern was built in front of the villa. The bathhouse was greatly expanded. A side wing with a room with two apses was added. The floor level was also raised.
In construction phase 4, two large farm buildings were built. They stood in front of the villa in the southwest and southeast, so that the villa and the new buildings framed a large courtyard. The exact function of the farm buildings is uncertain. They may have been barns, but servants also lived in them. During this time, the corridors in the main villa were also divided into various rooms.
In construction phase 5, at the beginning of the fourth century, the villa was greatly expanded. Rooms with hypkausten were added. Two larger rooms at the back of the villa have such strong foundations that it can be assumed that they perhaps supported another, perhaps even a third floor and thus formed small towers, as they are in fact known from pictorial representations of late antique villas are. These rooms were also equipped with mosaics, only that in the western room was better preserved and shows geometric patterns. Remnants of wall paintings came to light only occasionally. The remains of a ceiling painting were found in a well. It shows a pattern of squares, each with a flower.
Around 325 a large swimming pool was built next to the bathhouse. A large part of the villa was torn down around 350. Only a small outbuilding in the north continued to be inhabited until around AD 400. In the place of the villa, stables or maybe just simple fences for cattle breeding were built.
The abrupt end of the villa around 350 gave rise to speculation. The excavator suspected that the owner of the villa had supported the counter-emperor Magnentius . After he was overthrown, his followers, including the owner of this villa, were expropriated. The lands of the villa were nationalized.
Numerous finds of window glass testify that many windows in the house were glazed. The examination of the animal bones showed that mainly sheep were kept here in the 2nd century, while they hardly appeared in the 4th century.
Individual evidence
- ^ David S. Neal, Stephen R. Cosh: Roman Mosaics of Britain, Volume III: South-East Britain, Part 2 , London 2009, ISBN 978-085431-289-4 , pp. 300-302
- ^ Neal: The Excavation of the Roman Villa , p. 76
literature
- David S. Neal: The Excavation of the Roman Villa in Gadebridge Park Hemel Hempstead, 1963-8 , London 1974, ISBN 0500770239
Coordinates: 51 ° 44'25.2 " N , 0 ° 29'53.1" W.