Villa rustica (Keston)
The Villa Rustica in Keston is a former Roman estate ( Villa rustica ) in Keston , a rural area in Bromley , a municipality that in the south of London is.
The remains of the villa were described as early as 1815. A mausoleum near the villa in particular attracted interest. There were therefore isolated excavations in the following years, but no further reports are available. But there were three rectangular sarcophagi . There were further excavations in 1961, but they were never published. In 1967 and then from 1968 to 1990 the villa was then systematically excavated for the most part. The results of the excavations were published in two volumes in 1991 and 1999. The excavations are of particular importance. Here you can see how a Celtic village developed into a Roman manor. In addition, the complex has been extensively examined, including the outbuildings and a cemetery. In contrast, many excavations of Roman villas focus mostly only on the main building.
The development of the villa
The excavators differentiated different periods of settlement, which cover a period of several thousand years. The actual villa was only built under Roman rule.
Period I and II
The first remains of settlement date back to the Neolithic or Bronze Age . They are mostly simple flint tools that date more towards the Neolithic, although many of them could have been from the Mesolithic as well. Even in the Middle Iron Age (around 600 to 200 BC) there seems to have been a settlement here. There was mainly ceramics, often as small shards. No remains of architecture were found.
Period III and IV
In the late Iron Age (approx. 50 BC to 50 AD) the place was repopulated. There were various hearths and various pits, which probably served as waste pits. There were post holes that indicate wooden huts, but most of them were very small and may have served as storage. Such storehouses are well known from other Iron Age settlements in the south of England. As the buildings were made of wood and were later built over, little is known about this settlement. Parts of the village were surrounded by a moat. A villa may already have stood here, but hardly any remains of it have survived. This settlement continued to be inhabited under Roman rule. Period IV dates from about AD 50 to 160. Noteworthy are a number of pits with animal burials. The pits were often several meters deep and contained several skeletons. A religious function can be assumed.
Period V
The first villa was built in the middle of the second century AD. It was a rectangular wooden building to the west of a large courtyard. Only the post holes of the building have been found. Remnants of wall paintings found buried in pits show that at least some rooms of the villa were decorated with simple wall paintings. Some of the paintings show traces of fire. The villa was destroyed in a fire. It was almost certainly the main residential building of the complex. The building was once about 18 meters long and about 7 meters wide. Two more wooden buildings were erected to the north and south of the courtyard. They were probably farm buildings. The three buildings were therefore laid out around a courtyard. In the center of the courtyard was a simple building made of flint. Its function is unknown. A pottery operated in this settlement.
Period VI and VII
Around 200 AD, the main building in the west was replaced by a stone building that was expanded over time. The house was badly preserved. Especially in the western part, all the remains of the walls had completely disappeared. It was now a villa with a portico at the front and corner projections . There were three large rooms in the center of the villa. There was a small bathroom to the south. There were remains of wall paintings. At least some floors were covered with Opus tessellatum . However, there are no references to "correct" mosaics . At least one room appears to have had a hypocaust . Inside the house there were also two larger, roughly square pits that probably served as basements. The house was on the west side of a large courtyard. In the north and south of the courtyard there was a wooden structure. They probably served commercial purposes. In the north building there were two ovens for drying grain. The iron caps of a wooden water pipe were found in the courtyard. The water probably came from a source nearby. There were also two pools of water in the middle of the courtyard.
There was a small cemetery north of the villa. The center of the cemetery is a round mausoleum, which was initially interpreted as a temple. It is a little less than eight meters in diameter. There are supporting pillars on the outside. The outside was once plastered in red. The inside is empty and may once have been filled with sand to hold urns. However, nothing has survived from the urns. Next to this round building, another, smaller rectangular mausoleum was later built, in which a robbed burial was found. A third grave building is semicircular and built directly onto the round mausoleum. In the subterranean burial chamber, a lead box was found that served as an urn. Such lead coffins are also known from other burials in the south-east of England and it can be assumed that there was a workshop here that produced such coffins. Rochester was suggested as the place of origin. It contained human bones that belong to an adult, but also bones from a pig and perhaps bird bones. Three sarcophagi have been found in the necropolis over the centuries. Further burials were found in the vicinity of the mausoleums.
In the fourth century the southern house was replaced by a stone building. There were remains of wall paintings, but no hypocausts or floors made from Opus tessellatum. Nevertheless, the building should have served as a residential building. Metalworking remains were also found here. The northern timber structure was abandoned and a simple hut was built in its place. The villa was probably abandoned at the end of the fourth century. A simple hut from Anglo-Saxon times was excavated. It may have belonged to a village developing nearby and does not show any direct continuity in the occupancy of the villa.
Finds
About 400 shards of Terra Sigillata vessels were found, which can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of vessels from the second half of the first century, while the second group mainly dates to the middle of the second century. Other finds mention about 50 pottery wheels, which prove a pottery on site in the middle of the first century AD. Otherwise there were iron tools, various iron keys, various fibulae and a cube made of bone.
The ruins today
The mausoleums are now preserved as foundation walls in a private park, but can only be viewed by prior arrangement.
literature
- Brian Philp: The Roman Villa Site at Keston, Kent, First Report (Excavations 1968-1978). Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, Dover 1991, ISBN 0-947831-07-X .
- Brian Philp: The Roman Villa Site at Keston, Kent Second Report (Excavations 1967 and 1979-90). Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, Dover 1999, ISBN 0-947831-08-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Philp: The Roman Villa Site at Keston, Kent, First Report , p. 3
- ^ Philp: The Roman Villa Site at Keston, Kent, First Report , p. 25
- ↑ Philp: The Roman Villa Site at Keston, Kent Second Report , pp. 143-144
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '2.4 " N , 0 ° 1' 43.7" E