Villa Rustica (Great Witcombe)
The Villa Rustica near Great Witcombe is a former Roman manor ( villa rustica ) in the district of Great Witcombe , in the county of Gloucestershire , in south-west England . In ancient times it was in the Roman province of Britannia ( Britannia , since the fourth century Britannia prima ). The villa is close to Gloucester , the ancient Glevum .
The villa was discovered in 1818 and excavated by Samuel Lysons and Sir William Hicks that same year . There were further investigations from 1938 to 1939 and in the years from 1960 to 1973 by the archaeologist Ernest Greenfield. Investigations in the years 1999 to 2000 located other buildings in the vicinity, but they were not excavated.
The large villa has an approximately H-shaped floor plan and is built into a slope. The rooms preserved today are therefore on different levels. Several construction phases could be distinguished, dating from the first to the fourth century AD.
In the center of the complex is a kind of gallery with an octagonal room on the northwest side, which may have been a summer dining room. In the southwest wing are the remains of two bathrooms, which are equipped with well-preserved mosaics and can still be visited today. Two mosaics are decorated with geometrical patterns and date to the second century. A third mosaic shows fish and marine animals in black and white. It is a popular motif for bathrooms. It also dates to the second century. In the nineteenth century, some walls were still standing to a considerable height and often still had extensive remains of wall paintings, which are only partially preserved today. Walls were often painted with field decorations.
The villa was rich in small finds. Among them were the bronze statuette of a flora , well-preserved spoons and windows made of Roman glass . The coins date from the first century to the end of the fourth century.
Individual evidence
- ^ Norman Darvey, Roger Ling: Wall painting in Roman Britain. Alan Sutton, Gloucester 1982, ISBN 0-904387-96-8 , pp. 218-219.
literature
- Elsie M. Clifford: The Roman Villa at Witcombe , in: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society , 73 (1954), pp. 5-69. ( PDF ).
- Neil Holbrook: Great Witcombe Roman Villa, Gloucestershire: field surveys of its fabric and environs, 1999-2000 , in: Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 121 (2003), pp. 179-200. ( PDF ).
- Stephen R. Cosh, David S. Neal: Roman Mosaics of Britain. Volume IV: Western Britain , The Society of Antiquaries of London, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-85431-294-8 , pp. 157-163.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 36.1 ″ N , 2 ° 8 ′ 50.6 ″ W.