Post by Senbecc on Jun 8, 2007 15:00:35 GMT -5
A University of Nottingham archaeologist is involved in plans for a major Roman reconstruction project which is the first of its kind in the UK.
Professor Roger Wilson of the Department of Archaeology is working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield on plans for a full-scale reconstruction of a Roman villa at Mansfield Woodhouse on a site next to its original remains.
The initiative, still in its early stages, will give visitors a real taste of what it was like to live on a Roman country estate nearly 2,000 years ago, helping to put flesh on the dry bones of a vital part of Britain’s history. It is hoped that not only will the Nottinghamshire villa become a major tourist attraction, but that it will prove an ideal vehicle for educational visits.
The project has already secured £325,000 of funding from the European Regional Development Fund and £160,000 from English Partnerships — applications have been made to the Millennium Commission and National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The site was an ideal location because adjacent land had fallen derelict so was ripe for development, and the local authority, Mansfield District Council, welcomed the idea as a boost to its plans for economic regeneration.
Useful background information still survives from the initial excavation of the site in the 1780s (see attached notes). There was also a brief probe in the 1930s, when the date of the villa — late second century to mid-fourth century AD — was established, but Professor Wilson says a fresh excavation will be carried out to take advantage of modern archaeological techniques.
"It’s a very exciting project, initiated by John Wade of Sheffield’s Biblical Studies Department, which I’m delighted to be involved in," he said. "We intend to carry out a full geophysical survey and subsequent excavation of the site — which will involve both Nottingham and Sheffield students — in order to be able to reconstruct the villa as accurately as possible.
"Detailed plans are yet to be worked out, but I will have full involvement on the steering committee and give input on a regular basis."
A fascinating twist to Professor Wilson’s involvement in the project is that when he first became interested in Roman archaeology at the age of 12, he borrowed from the public library a book published in 1911 which contained a substantial account of the villa at Mansfield Woodhouse. His schoolboy notebooks, which he still has, are full of the site.
Artefacts from the 1930s excavation of the site, which was conducted by the University’s Felix Oswald, belong to the University but are currently on loan to the Mansfield Museum. Most will return in due course to the newly-refurbished University Museum, currently closed pending the setting-up of new displays.
— Ends —
NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information contact Professor Roger Wilson on 01664 822521 or media relations officer Lyn Heath-Harvey on 0115 951 5798. Please see attached information for background information on the original excavation of the site.
BACKGROUND NOTES ON ROMAN REMAINS
The villa was first discovered in the spring of 1786 by Major Hayman Rooke, whose account of the investigation was published — his attention was first attracted by some tesserae (small tile and stone pieces used for mosaics) known by the local country people as ‘fairy pavements’.
Early on in the excavation, walls were found around a foot below the surface and then several rooms of a villa of the ‘winged corridor’ type, the entrance to which seems to have been in the middle of a corridor on the east side. The remains of a fine tessellated pavement were unearthed in the centre room and fragments of wall plaster painted in stripes of purple, red, yellow, green and other colours were found here and in five smaller rooms in which were also ashes and traces of fire. At one end of the corridor was a hypocaust — a forerunner of modern central heating systems. A few feet away there was found a small building with a mosaic in the centre room described by a contemporary writer as "the most curious and beautiful of the sort ever beheld in this part of the kingdom."
In the following autumn Major Rooke discovered another building which he called the villa rustica, or part of the house used by servants and cattle rather than the master and his family. No tessellated pavements were found in the second building, but there were brightly-painted walls and two hypocausts. In two small cellar-like rooms, 15 small bronze coins were found, including third and fourth-century examples — the remainder were illegible.
A little way from the family part of the villa were two tombs: beneath one was a vault which yielded an urn containing ashes and some unburnt human bones.
Between the two tombs was a pavement with a kind of pedestal at its centre — here was found a fragmentary tombstone, now unfortunately lost.
Rooke appears to have been forward-thinking for his time, noting that the only means of preserving the mosaic was to backfill the rooms with earth, until a special hut could be erected overhead — today’s archaeologists as yet have no idea whether his foresight has paid dividends. Time will tell.
Site
Professor Roger Wilson of the Department of Archaeology is working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield on plans for a full-scale reconstruction of a Roman villa at Mansfield Woodhouse on a site next to its original remains.
The initiative, still in its early stages, will give visitors a real taste of what it was like to live on a Roman country estate nearly 2,000 years ago, helping to put flesh on the dry bones of a vital part of Britain’s history. It is hoped that not only will the Nottinghamshire villa become a major tourist attraction, but that it will prove an ideal vehicle for educational visits.
The project has already secured £325,000 of funding from the European Regional Development Fund and £160,000 from English Partnerships — applications have been made to the Millennium Commission and National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The site was an ideal location because adjacent land had fallen derelict so was ripe for development, and the local authority, Mansfield District Council, welcomed the idea as a boost to its plans for economic regeneration.
Useful background information still survives from the initial excavation of the site in the 1780s (see attached notes). There was also a brief probe in the 1930s, when the date of the villa — late second century to mid-fourth century AD — was established, but Professor Wilson says a fresh excavation will be carried out to take advantage of modern archaeological techniques.
"It’s a very exciting project, initiated by John Wade of Sheffield’s Biblical Studies Department, which I’m delighted to be involved in," he said. "We intend to carry out a full geophysical survey and subsequent excavation of the site — which will involve both Nottingham and Sheffield students — in order to be able to reconstruct the villa as accurately as possible.
"Detailed plans are yet to be worked out, but I will have full involvement on the steering committee and give input on a regular basis."
A fascinating twist to Professor Wilson’s involvement in the project is that when he first became interested in Roman archaeology at the age of 12, he borrowed from the public library a book published in 1911 which contained a substantial account of the villa at Mansfield Woodhouse. His schoolboy notebooks, which he still has, are full of the site.
Artefacts from the 1930s excavation of the site, which was conducted by the University’s Felix Oswald, belong to the University but are currently on loan to the Mansfield Museum. Most will return in due course to the newly-refurbished University Museum, currently closed pending the setting-up of new displays.
— Ends —
NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information contact Professor Roger Wilson on 01664 822521 or media relations officer Lyn Heath-Harvey on 0115 951 5798. Please see attached information for background information on the original excavation of the site.
BACKGROUND NOTES ON ROMAN REMAINS
The villa was first discovered in the spring of 1786 by Major Hayman Rooke, whose account of the investigation was published — his attention was first attracted by some tesserae (small tile and stone pieces used for mosaics) known by the local country people as ‘fairy pavements’.
Early on in the excavation, walls were found around a foot below the surface and then several rooms of a villa of the ‘winged corridor’ type, the entrance to which seems to have been in the middle of a corridor on the east side. The remains of a fine tessellated pavement were unearthed in the centre room and fragments of wall plaster painted in stripes of purple, red, yellow, green and other colours were found here and in five smaller rooms in which were also ashes and traces of fire. At one end of the corridor was a hypocaust — a forerunner of modern central heating systems. A few feet away there was found a small building with a mosaic in the centre room described by a contemporary writer as "the most curious and beautiful of the sort ever beheld in this part of the kingdom."
In the following autumn Major Rooke discovered another building which he called the villa rustica, or part of the house used by servants and cattle rather than the master and his family. No tessellated pavements were found in the second building, but there were brightly-painted walls and two hypocausts. In two small cellar-like rooms, 15 small bronze coins were found, including third and fourth-century examples — the remainder were illegible.
A little way from the family part of the villa were two tombs: beneath one was a vault which yielded an urn containing ashes and some unburnt human bones.
Between the two tombs was a pavement with a kind of pedestal at its centre — here was found a fragmentary tombstone, now unfortunately lost.
Rooke appears to have been forward-thinking for his time, noting that the only means of preserving the mosaic was to backfill the rooms with earth, until a special hut could be erected overhead — today’s archaeologists as yet have no idea whether his foresight has paid dividends. Time will tell.
Site