Stunning dark ages mosaic found at Roman villa in Cotswolds

In Britain, life at the beginning of the dark ages is commonly perceived to be a fairly uncomfortable period, an epoch of trouble and misery with the expulsion of Roman rulers leading to economic misery and cultural stagnation.

But a stunning discovery at the Chedworth Roman villa in the Cotswolds suggests that some people at least managed to maintain a rich and sophisticated lifestyle.

National Trust archaeologists have established that a mosaic at the Gloucestershire villa was probably laid in the middle of the fifth century, years after such homes were thought to have been abandoned and fallen into ruin.

The mosaic, found in what may have been a summer dining room, is not quite as splendid as the ones at the villa dating to Roman times, but it seems to show the residents were clinging on to a very decent standard of living.

Martin Papworth, a National Trust archaeologist, said the find was hugely exciting. He said: “The fifth century is a time which marks the beginning of the sub-Roman period, often called the dark ages, a time from which few documents survive, and archaeological evidence is scarce.”

Four hundred years of Roman rule ended in Britain in about 410AD. Papworth said: “It has generally been believed that most of the population turned to subsistence farming and, after the break with Rome, Britannia’s administrative system broke down into a series of local fiefdoms.

“What is so exciting about the dating of this mosaic at Chedworth is that it is evidence for a more gradual decline.

The creation of a new room and the laying of a new floor suggests wealth, and a mosaic industry continuing 50 years later than had been expected.”

The fifth-century mosaic is of an intricate design. Its outer border is a series of circles alternately filled with flowers and knots. It is of poorer quality than the fourth-century ones found at the villa and others like it.

There are several mistakes, suggesting the skills of the craftspeople were being eroded. But it is nevertheless an attractive floor.

The identities of the people living at the villa in this era are lost in the mists of time. “They could have been dignitaries, people with money, influence, and friends in high places,” said Papworth.

He suggested it was also possible that the area was not so badly affected by hostile raids that were taking place in the north and east.

“It is interesting to speculate why Chedworth villa’s owners were still living in this style well into the fifth century. It seems that in the West Country, the Romanised way of life was sustained for a while.”

It was possible to date the mosaic thanks to traces of carbon found in a trench dug to build a wall to create the room the mosaic was found in.

Dating the carbon strongly suggested the wall was built between 424 and 544 AD. The mosaic was laid in the newly created room after the wall was built.

Stephen Cosh, who has written about Britain’s known Roman mosaics, said: “I am still reeling from the shock. It will be important to research further sites in the region to see whether we can demonstrate a similar refurbishment at other villas which continued to be occupied in the fifth century. But there is no question that this find at Chedworth is of enormous significance – it’s tremendously exciting.”

The 2,000-year-old Hallaton helmet is the only Roman helmet ever Found in Britain

At the British Museum, a silver-gilt Roman helmet of excellent quality and world value found as part of the Hallaton Treasure and ArtFunded in 2007 was returned to its former glory.

The discovery was purchased by the Leicestershire County Council for exhibition at the Harborough Museum and the helmet was restored and repaired with the expertise at the British Museum due to Heritage Lottery funding.

Discovery

Archaeologists who made the original discovery at Hallaton in Leicestershire, used to finding more glamorous gold and silver coins, joked they had found a fairly modern “rusty bucket”. Little did they know at the time what a hugely significant archaeological find they had come across.

The “Hallaton Helmet” was found ten years ago by members of the Hallaton Fieldwork Group and professional archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services who were excavating the remains of a 2,000-year-old Iron Age shrine.

The site appears to be a major religious center, having produced the largest number of Iron Age coins ever excavated in Britain and possible evidence of ritual feasting dating to the mid-1st century AD.

The finds from this site would later become known as the Hallaton Treasure.

On display

The helmet was too fragile to be excavated in situ so it was removed within a block of earth held together with plaster of Paris.

It was taken to the British Museum in London for conservation, which took nine years of work by conservator Marilyn Hockey and her colleagues Fleur Shearman and Duygu Çamurcuoğlu. 

Corrosion and the effects of time had shattered the helmet into thousands of pieces, most of which were smaller than the nail on a person’s little finger. The reconstructed and conserved helmet was unveiled in January 2012.

Leicester County Council was able to raise £1 million to buy the entire hoard and pay for the conservation of the helmet, with the assistance of donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund (which gave a £650,000 grant), the Art Fund and other trusts and charities.

The helmet was valued at £300,000; under the terms of the Treasure Act, Ken Wallace and the landowner were each awarded £150,000.

The helmet was put on permanent public display at the end of January 2012 at the Harborough Museum in Market Harborough, nine miles from the site where the hoard was found, alongside other objects found at Hallaton.

Thousand-Year-Old Goblet Shows Ancient Romans Used Nanotechnology

Finally, researchers have discovered why the jade-green cup appears red when lit from behind. The colourful secret of a 1,600-year-old Roman chalice at the British Museum is the key to a super­sensitive new technology that might help diagnose human disease or pinpoint biohazards at security checkpoints.

When lit from the front, the glass chalice, known as the Lycurgus Cup because it bears a scene involving  King Lycurgus of Thrace, appears jade green when lit from the front but blood-red when lit from behind—a property that puzzled scientists for decades after the museum acquired the cup in the 1950s.

The mystery wasn’t solved until 1990 when researchers in England scrutinized broken fragments under a microscope and discovered that the Roman artisans were nanotechnology pioneers: They’d impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt.

The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing—“an amazing feat,” says one of the researchers, archaeologist Ian Freestone of University College London.

The ancient nanotech works something like this: When hit with light, electrons belonging to the metal flecks vibrate in ways that alter the colour depending on the observer’s position.

Gang Logan Liu, an engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has long focused on using nanotechnology to diagnose disease, and his colleagues realized that this effect offered untapped potential.

“The Romans knew how to make and use nanoparticles for beautiful art,” Liu says. “We wanted to see if this could have scientific applications.”

When various fluids filled the cup, Liu suspected, they would change how the vibrating electrons in the glass interacted, and thus the colour. (Today’s home pregnancy tests exploit a separate nano-based phenomenon to turn a white line pink.)

Since the researchers couldn’t put liquid into the precious artefact itself, they instead imprinted billions of tiny wells onto a plastic plate about the size of a postage stamp and sprayed the wells with gold or silver nanoparticles, essentially creating an array with billions of ultra-miniature Lycurgus Cups.

When water, oil, sugar solutions and salt solutions were poured into the wells, they displayed a range of easy-to-distinguish colours—light green for water and red for oil, for example.

The proto­type was 100 times more sensitive to altered levels of salt in solution than current commercial sensors using similar techniques.

It may one day make its way into handheld devices for detecting pathogens in samples of saliva or urine, or for thwarting terrorists trying to carry dangerous liquids onto airplanes.

The original fourth-century A.D. Lycurgus Cup, probably taken out only for special occasions, depicts King Lycurgus ensnared in a tangle of grapevines, presumably for evil acts committed against Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.

If inventors manage to develop a new detection tool from this ancient technology, it’ll be Lycurgus’ turn to do the ensnaring.

University of Cambridge: Remains of 1,300 scholars are found under a building

Some were sickly Cambridge University scholars, other homeless wayfarers or simply the infirm.

Having fallen on hard times, and being too poor to care for themselves, they all ended up receiving spiritual succour during their last days in the medieval Hospital of St John the Evangelist, set up in 1195.

After they died they were buried in the hospital’s own cemetery whose exact site and scale was a mystery for centuries – until a lecture hall belonging to a Cambridge college needed refurbishing.

To their amazement, archaeologists digging under the Old Divinity School – a Victorian building owned by St John’s College, which was founded in 1511 on the site of the hospital and which takes its name from it – unearthed the cemetery and the remains of 1,300 people.

Details and photographs of the eerie find are made public for the first time.

Experts said it is one of the largest medieval hospital cemeteries ever discovered in Britain and, with on-going DNA analysis of the remains, will help to cast fresh light on life and death in medieval times. 

The archaeologists broke out the floors of the Old Divinity School and the team of 20 dug down inside each room. 

In a six-month dig, they found some 400 almost perfectly preserved human skeletons and the partial remains of up to 900 more, all dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. 

Craig Cessford, of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: ‘It was known that the cemetery was in that area, but we didn’t know for definite it was where we were working. 

‘It was quite amazing to find.’ Most of the skeletons are of 25 to 45-year-old men. The hospital was run by Augustinian monks, and pregnant women were excluded.

Mr Cessford, 45, said the skeletons were buried in neat rows and once the cemetery was full, more were buried on top.

The names of the dead are a mystery, but the cemetery was found to have had gravel paths, suggesting that people visited their deceased loved ones.

The bodies did not exhibit many serious illnesses and conditions. 

The Archaeological Journal, which reports on the findings in its latest issue, says this reflects how medieval hospitals’ main role was ‘spiritual and physical care of the poor and infirm rather than medical treatment of the sick and injured’.

Archaeologists uncover prehistoric graves and human remains in the East of England

The Ely Standard reports that two Bronze Age graves were found in the East of England during the archaeological investigation of land slated for construction. One of the graves held the remains of an elderly woman whose shoulder showed signs of arthritis and had lost most of her teeth. 

Orbit Homes secured planning authority to build 149 homes on land between Regal Lane/Blackberry Lane and the A142 in Soham in February 2019.

Before construction began, Orbit homes wanted to carry out expert archaeological work as part of the pre-development scheme, and an exploration of the area uncovered some interesting discoveries.

The excavation, undertaken by Albion Archaeology, included two human graves which contained the skeleton of an elderly woman who had arthritis in her shoulder and lost most of her teeth, while the other was a middle-aged man with a bad back.

David Ingham, project manager at Albion Archaeology, said: “Two human burials were found in graves and these are currently thought to be Bronze Age, but radiocarbon testing will confirm this.

“No trace was found of an Iron Age houses, though the remains of two timber structures were identified, which could have been small granaries.”

The dig also uncovered pottery, animal and plant remain, as well as evidence of Roman ditches, with most Anglo-Saxon activity on the site was largely represented by a concentration of pits in the western half of the area.

However, Mr Ingham said there was no evidence of a Roman settlement within the site.

He said: “The identified remains may have formed part of a much wider landscape in which people and animals moved from pasture to pasture over relatively large distances.”

The first settlement on the field dates back to the Iron Age, but earlier signs of activity have been discovered which are thought to go back to as far as 2,500 BC.

Ian Fieldhouse, land and new business director for Orbit Homes in the East, added: “Around half of the six-hectare site has been excavated with further investigations taking place in December.

“Once all the data has been collated, we can continue with construction in March 2021.

“It has been a really interesting exercise; it was fascinating to learn that the findings date back to prehistoric times.”

Once building construction work begins on the homes, where 41 will be made affordable, show homes are then due to open in Autumn 2021.

‘Remarkable’ Roman villa found buried under a field in North Wales

A Roman villa near Rossett was discovered – the first of its kind ever to be discovered in northeast Wales. The find, made by Wrexham Museum, the University of Chester and Archaeological Survey West, represents an exciting addition to our knowledge of the area during the Roman period.

With the partnership of local metal detectorists who found Roman material on the site, the site was uncovered, this sparked a remote sensing survey which revealed clear evidence of a buried structure.

The remains appear to be of a fairly typical form with a number of stone and tile buildings surrounding a central courtyard, the survey also suggested its association with a field system, a trackway and other related buildings and structures.

Fieldwalking at the site has yielded artefacts from the late 1st century to the early 4th century AD, suggesting that the villa was occupied for the majority of Roman rule in Britain.

The Roman army invaded Britain in AD 43 and quickly pushed northwards and westwards across the country. The fortress at Chester was established around AD 74 and with relative peace came the establishment of a network of towns and rural settlements.

Most villas were essentially farming establishments, although ranged from relatively simple in design to very grand with mosaic floors, bathhouses and underfloor heating systems.

The discovery of architectural fragments found during fieldwalking suggests that this villa may incorporate at least some of these grander features.

Dr Caroline Pudney, senior lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Chester, said: “This exciting discovery potentially alters our understanding of north east Wales in the wake of the Roman conquest.

“Previous interpretations suggest that most people in this area either lived in settlements associated with Roman military sites or in quite simple farmsteads that continued to utilise Iron Age roundhouse architectural forms. The identification of the villa now questions this narrative.”

Councillor Hugh Jones, lead member for people at Wrexham Council and the local Member for the Rossett ward, said: “This discovery is remarkable and just goes to underline the significant number of fantastic archaeological discoveries that have taken place in and around Rossett in recent years, whether it be Bronze Age such as the wonderful Burton Hoard or the Roman lead pig (or ingot) that is currently on display at the Museum.”

The museum and the university are now planning a programme of work to further investigate the site over the next few years subject to funding and appropriate permissions.

The work on the project to date has been funded by the Roman Research Trust and supported by Wrexham Museum and the University of Chester.

4,000-Year-Old Jet Necklace Found At Isle Of Man Round Mounds Dig

During an archaeological excavation on Man Isle, a 4,000-year-old necklace was discovered. The piece of jewellery, located in the west of the island, consists of 122 beads of 1cm and 5cm each which are “intricately” decorated.

Centred in Whitby, North Yorkshire, it is the first of its kind to be found on Man Island. The necklace was crescent-shaped and made of several strings when completely assembled.

The Round Mounds of the Isle of Man project hopes to discover more about Bronze Age burial practices and the island’s connections with other parts of the British Isles.

The excavation of the ancient burial sites has been running for four years. More than 40 experts and students from two UK universities worked on this year’s four-week dig near Kirk Michael.

The cremated remains of seven people have been found on the site to date but this was the first time an “inhumation”, or skeletal remains, has been uncovered.

Rachel Crellin, of the University of Leicester, is leading the project alongside Chris Fowler of Newcastle University. She said that although the necklace was “undeniably beautiful”, the “real value” of the find was the burial itself.

The grave would allow the team to “connect it up to this story about Britain and Ireland,” Dr Crellin added.

The “deliberate” placing of stones, thought to be a grinding stone and cutting block, next to the body could be of “particular significance” regarding “things like food, productivity and fertility,” Dr Fowler added.

Funding for the project was provided by Manx National Heritage (MNH) and the two universities.

MNH Director Edmund Southworth said it was “hoped” the “very fragile” necklace would be put on display, but that would be “some considerable time away”.

The piece will now be digitally reconstructed, while scientific analysis will be carried out on the human remains.

Decapitated Skeletons, with Heads Between Their Legs, Unearthed in Roman Cemetery

Archaeologists discovered that a third of the skeletons were decapitated at a fourth-century Roman grave site in England, an unusually high percentage, even for the Roman Empire.

“Low proportions of decapitated burials are a common component of Roman cemeteries,” said Andy Peachey, an archaeologist at the site, to the East Anglian Daily Times. “It is rare to find such a high proportion of decapitated burials in Britain… Perhaps only half a dozen other sites in Britain demonstrate this.”

Out of the 52 skeletons archaeologists have identified in Suffolk county’s Great Whelnetham village, 17 are decapitated with their head placed between their legs. These beheadings occurred after the people had already died—meaning that none of them was executed in this fashion.

“This appears to be a careful funeral rite that may be associated with a particular group within the local population, possibly associated with a belief system (cult) or a practice that came with a group moved into the area,” Peachey said.

The 17 beheaded skeletons are male and female, with one belonging to a child around nine or ten years old.

Most of the 52 skeletons in the graveyard are middle-aged or older. They show signs of poor dental hygiene but were well-nourished. Some of them had tuberculosis.

The reason archaeologists examined the site in the first place is that there is a planned housing development there. In Europe, archaeological discoveries are often made in preparation for public works projects.

That’s how researchers found a pair of medieval thigh-high boots in the mud of the River Thames, an ancient Roman library in Germany and a motley collection of artefacts in the city of Rome.

Archaeologists are still studying the skeletons in Great Whelnetham and will publish a report on their findings when they have finished. Until then, it’s difficult to speculate on why these 17 skeletons were singled out for beheading rites; previous examples of Roman beheadings don’t necessarily shed light on the reason these skeletons were decapitated.

In the city of York, England, there’s a second- and third-century Roman grave site where most of the 80-some skeletons were decapitated. Researchers found that these decapitated people migrated to York from as far away as modern-day Syria or Palestine.

But unlike the Great Whelnetham skeletons, the decapitated skeletons of York were all men whose remains suggest they were gladiators or soldiers. For some of them, decapitation probably was the way they died.

The skeletons at Great Whelnetham seem to have met a gentler fate.