Villa rustica (Barcombe)

At Barcombe ( East Sussex , England ) are the remains of a Roman villa , which have been excavated since 2001.

The first remains of settlement date back to the Stone and Bronze Ages. A small courtyard was built here around 40 to 50 AD. The remains of at least three round huts have been found from this time. These were surrounded by a simple fence. In the middle of the 2nd century AD, one of the round huts was replaced by a simple rectangular building.

Around 200 AD this small farm was completely torn down and replaced by a large villa rustica. The building had two wings and a veranda, behind which there were various rooms. It was a portico villa . At least two rooms were decorated with mosaics , which, apart from a few stones, were no longer preserved. There were remains of wall paintings. At about the same time as the villa, a hall (about 40 × 17 m) was erected to the southeast. This consisted of a large hall, the ceiling of which was supported by columns. There were three rooms in the north and a small bathroom in the west, which was partially torn down when the hall was built. So it was a bit older. The villa and the hall building formed two sides of a courtyard, which was bordered on the other sides by a wall.

The villa was abandoned around 300 AD. There are individual traces of settlement from the 4th and 9th centuries.

A coin hoard from the hall building, which contained around 120 coins from the late 3rd century, should be mentioned among individual finds.

literature

• Andy Gammon: Barcombe Roman Villa , University of Sussex 2006 (excavation fact sheet )

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 38.7 "  N , 0 ° 0 ′ 56.3"  E