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12 January 2003
Mosaics, mosaics, mosaics ...
Following the discovery of a fine Roman mosaic by a local builder in nearby Lopen, farmer's daughter Trudy Ridgers of Dinnington decided to have a look in her father's fields. She found fragments of mosaic of an even better quality. She called Time Team and asked it to solve the mystery of Somerset's lost Roman villas.
Massive villa complex
After the usual geophysics surveys, which produce astounding results, the Team realises it is looking at a massive villa complex – akin to a huge country mansion today. In order not to damage the site a surgical test-pit survey is first conducted to establish the depth of the archaeology. It quickly becomes clear that the Roman building is made up of a main house with huge ranges (or wings) at each end. The structure itself is some 150 metres across.
Abundance of quality finds
From the moment the digging starts it becomes clear that this was home to a high-status family. Phil Harding discovers a chequered-pattern mosaic floor just 20cm below the surface, while the topsoil is full of pottery and coins spanning centuries of occupation. Further mosaics with geometric designs are uncovered in different rooms of the villa as the dig progresses.
Another story
During the three days of excavations foundations are discovered for massive one-metre-wide internal walls, together with even larger external foundation works. The specialists conclude that this must have been a two-storey building. Then, in typical Time Team style, at the last moment another mosaic is discovered one metre below the surface – well below the other examples on the site. There must have been high-status occupation here long before the villa phase the Team has been concentrating on. But that's another story for another day.
Time Team returned to Dinnington as part of the Big Roman Dig series of programmes, a week long exploration of Roman Britain screened in July 2005, when further excavations made it clear that this was one of the most important Roman villa sites in the country. The full story was told in The Big Roman Villa; A Time Team Special, first screened on 8 January 2006.
Interview with Victor Ambrus
As Time Team starts another of its excavations in an open field, illustrator Victor Ambrus faces the scene. How does he create those fantastic illustrations when both he and the archaeologists start their work with so little to go on? The Time Team website caught up with him at the excavation of the Roman villa site at Dinnington, Somerset, for the 2003 series.
How do you first get an idea of what you are going to draw?
'The first thing I did here was to go out on the site and track down the only evidence we had for the archaeology,' says Victor. 'That was a rather nice aerial photograph, which showed a shadow of where the villa was situated. That gave me the setting with a good idea of the location of the actual building. It also told me that we were looking at a rather large 'U' shaped building. At this stage I couldn't do an awful lot and I had to wait for the geophysics to come in. The geophysics results got better and better as we went on, which was an enormous help as things got clearer as we progressed.'
When did you start drawing?
'Initially I did some rough sketches on a piece of scrap paper and floated them around all of the archaeologists involved with the building,' continues Victor. 'This gives me a good idea of what they think about the kind of building that I have in mind. We had quite a few bits of evidence for the layout of villas in this area and ours appeared to be quite similar. On the basis of my fact finding I started to draw up a plan of the villa in a larger scale in pencil and located it in the landscape of the picture. Then I did some more research on the type of building we were dealing with and how it may have been finished on the outside: for example, was it rendered or just left as stonework? In the end the general conclusion – following finds in the field – was that the structure was rendered with a plaster/cement mix and painted over.'
Do you need to do additional research on top of the evidence from the trenches?
'Oh yes. The next step is to look through as many books as I can lay my hands on to try to identify typical features of the period. I also keep a close eye on what is being found by the excavation. Here I started to come around to the idea of an aisled building with long internal corridors. Gradually the evidence was coming out and we found the mosaic, which would have been in one of the rooms opening onto a main corridor connecting the wings of the villa.
'The status of the evidence started me thinking along the lines of a terraced courtyard between the wings of the villa. David Neal, the mosaic specialist, said that another basic mosaic surface would have gone around the edge of the courtyard and that it would have required some protection from the weather, so I constructed a series of pillars with a roof to protect it. It has even been suggested that shutters could have been installed between the pillars to give extra protection during the winter and help keep the house warm. So I went along with that theory as I gradually brought the picture together.'
Do you need to keep redrawing parts of the picture as new evidence is found?
'All the time. We started to get more evidence as to where various walls and gateways would have been, so I could take the picture quite a long way. We also have foundations that are very big, so it looks like we are definitely dealing with a two-storey building. Towards the end of day three there was also some talk of possible towers at either end.'
What do you do while you wait for the archaeologists to sort their story out?
'While the specialists discuss the options on the archaeology I can get on with a few other things like working on the landscape in the picture, adding some watercolour, and drawing a few caricatures of people who may have lived here.'
Perfect conditions for geophysics
Chris Gaffney talked to the Time Team website during the excavation at Dinnington
'These have been great conditions for us. We've largely stuck to the tried and trusted methods of magnetometry and resistivity and both have worked remarkably well,' says Chris. 'We've homed in with these techniques and discovered the extent of this fantastic building. All of the trenches have been sited following these very clear results.
'I'm just about to start using some ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to see what I can find. As the excavations move on and we get near to the end of day three our work becomes less important to Time Team – but Time Team becomes more important to us. Basically I can now do some research with things like the GPR and compare the results with our work of the last few days. I'm hoping to get some really good in-depth information, which I can combine with our other results and then animate the whole thing on the computer.'
Further reading
Ancient Mosaics by Roger Ling (British Museum, 1998) paperback £12.99 ISBN: 0714122181
Traces the history of mosaics and their regional variations from Hellenistic to early Christian times, including mosaic techniques and their relationship to ancient interior design.
Geometric Patterns from Roman Mosaics by Robert Field (Tarquin Publications, 1988) paperback £2.95 ISBN: 0906212634
A compact and interesting guide.
Romano-British Mosaics by Alan McWhirr (Shire Publications, 1995) paperback £10 ISBN: 0852638914
Illustrated guide to Roman-British mosaics in the popular Shire Archaeology series.
Vitruvius: On Architecture translated by Frank Granger (Harvard University Press, 1996) hardback £12.95
Studied by architects from the Renaissance to the present, Vitruvius's book is an incredible DIY handbook ranging from recipes for plaster and paint to the aesthetic use of marble and the construction of siege engines. An invaluable reference for Time Team cameos and a guide to the styles and means of construction of Roman buildings that survive today.
Mosaic
Annual journal of the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics [see website]. Vol 27 includes the article 'Recreating the mosaic from Basildon Roman villa' by Steve Cosh. The recreation was carried out for Time Team as part of the excavation of a Roman villa at Lower Basildon for the 2001 series.
Other websites
This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics (ASPROM)
www.asprom.org/index.html
The Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics website offers a wide variety of materials relating to mosaics in Britain, including their design, construction and the buildings in which they have been discovered. There is a catalogue of every Roman mosaic discovered in Britain, as well as articles providing an insight into the relationship between mosaics and art, architecture, religion and history. ASPROM is supporting former English Heritage chief illustrator David Neal and Steve Cosh's project to catalogue and publish details of every Roman mosaic in Britain, further details of which can be found on its website.
The best and worst Roman mosaics in Britain
www.cix.co.uk/~archaeology/timeline/roman/mosaics/mosaics.htm
Mosaics expert and illustrator David Neal has been working with Steve Cosh to produce a four-volume account of all the known mosaics in the country. Here they choose four of their best – and worst – Roman mosaics in Britain. This illustrated web page is an abridged version of an article that appeared in Current Archaeology 157, published in May 1998.
Illustrating Roman mosaics
www.asprom.org/articles/General/mosaics.htm
How can Roman mosaics best be illustrated? Mosaics are difficult to photograph even under good conditions: because of their size and situation, often only an oblique view is possible. Furthermore, many are known only from photos, usually black and white, usually oblique, and rarely of the entire mosaic. Thus to get an overall idea of what an ancient mosaic looked like, the best solution is a painting to scale, together with photographic evidence, and this is the solution adopted in the forthcoming corpus of Romano-British mosaics by David Neal and Steve Cosh. This illustrated article gives a detailed account of the background to their work and the history of recording Roman mosaics in Britain.
The Romans in Britain: Roman mosaics
www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/arc_roman_mosaics.htm
Good basic introduction to Roman mosaics, their design, construction, peculiarities and mistakes.
Roman mosaics gallery
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/mosaic_gallery/index.shtml
Online gallery of mosaics from Fishbourne Roman Palace and Bignor Roman villa.
Fishbourne Roman Palace mosaics
www.sussexpast.co.uk/fishbo/mosaics.htm
Illustrated details of the Fishbourne Palace mosaics, the largest in situ collection of Roman mosaics in Britain.
Piazza Armerina, Sicily
www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/armerina/armerina.html
A large, early 4th-century Roman villa and estate in Sicily, the Piazza Armerina has many well-preserved mosaics that feature on this website.
Pyrrha's Roman pages
www.pyrrha.demon.co.uk/index.html
This website provides information on how a couple with classical enthusiasms made a Roman mosaic and garden. The site also contains an introduction to the Latin language, poetry and how to read Latin inscriptions.
Mosaic Workshop
www.mosaicworkshop.com/acatalog/index.html
Shop: 1a Princeton Street
London WC1R 4AX
Tel: 020 7831 0889
Workshop: Unit B
443-449 Holloway Road
London N7 6LJ
Tel: 020 7263 2997
The Mosaic Workshop supplies materials and organises courses on mosaic-making.