Man finds Romain villa remains while laying electrical cables for his home

roman villa discovered while laying electrical cables

Laying cables is usually a fairly straight forward process, but for Luke Irwin it uncovered an incredible discovery.

While digging up land at his Wiltshire farmhouse to lay electrical cables so his children could play table tennis in an old barn, he found an untouched mosaic.

After calling the Wiltshire Archaeology Service and Historic England, an eight day dig showed sure signs of evidence that this was the home of a wealthy family living in luxury and could possibly be one of the largest Roman villas in the country.

The Roman villa was confirmed by experts to have been built sometime between 175AD and 220AD, dating back over 2000 years. They also estimated that it was repeatedly remodelled up until the end of the 4th century.

The dig also revealed coins, wild animals, brooches and oysters, which were artificially cultivated and then carried live from the coast in barrels of salt water, a solid indication of how wealthy the family were.

Historic England archaeologist Dr David Roberts has said the find is significant for a number of reasons, this villa’s high state of preservation and the finds of material dating from the 5th century, a post-Roman but pre-Saxon period for the region, also made it significant.

He said: “This site has not been touched since its collapse 1400 years ago and, as such, is of enormous importance. Without question, this is a hugely valuable site in terms of research, with incredible potential.”

There are still questions to be answers after the “small” excavation to see exactly how big the villa is, how the site relates to the Roman road and how it should be preserved.

This is an incredible discovery made in the process of carrying out electrical work and a wonderful example of local history. If you have any electrical projects you would like help with, do get in touch and we will be happy to help and advise.

 

 

Photo Credit: freepressjournal.in

 

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