Roman tiles and what they represent

Some of the most prolific finds at Wittenham are the masses of Roman roof tile that have been discovered. The Time Team site supervisor, Kerry Ely, was pulling fragments of terracotta tiles out of his trench all day.

'There's loads of it here,' he said. 'Both teglia (main roof tile) and imbrex (curved ridging tile) have been found in large amounts. There's a definite layer that's packed with it.'

The sheer volume of tile discovered here indicates that the structures on the site may have been fairly substantial. This is supported by the geophysics results, indicating that large Roman buildings became a part of this important landscape when the Iron Age gave way to the Roman period some 2,000 years ago.

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