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Time Team: The 98 series
Programme 4: Turkdean, Gloucestershire
Drawing © Victor Ambrus
Steve Breeze has put together a reconstruction of the villa, showing
the two stages of villa development.
 Villa reconstruction, QuickTime,1.2mb
 Villa reconstruction, RealVideo, 30k
we now have a reconstruction with no plug-ins required! (182k)
Last August Bank Holiday, Time Team attempted their most ambitious
project ever – three days of live excavation, warts and all, with
the very real possibility of finding precisely nothing. As over
two million viewers know, Time Team Live ended with evidence of a Romano-British villa complex in Gloucestershire
that is one of the largest ever found. Tonight's programme is
an edited version of that weekend, capturing the key moments of
exciting finds as well as additional updated information on the
site that, in the heat of the moment, the live dig was able to
cover.
The dig was conducted in a field near Turkdean, a small village
near Cheltenham. The early geophysics results were some of the best ever produced for the team, expanding on
the extraordinary parchmarks in the field that, when seen from the air by an archaeology student,
looked just like an academic plan of a Roman villa.
When the first trenches were dug, the site – which had lain undisturbed
for at least a century – revealed walls just inches beneath the
surface. Finds started coming thick and fast:
a terracotta roof tile impressed with a dog's footprint (a rather
touching glimpse of the past), a delicate baby's bracelet, coins, an ornamental finial from a rooftop, pottery, brooches and, most rare of all, a 'good luck' badge.
The complex was found to be much larger than first envisaged,
and the Team dug a total of seven trenches – a record for the
series. After drawing together all the evidence unearthed by Time Team – and including a Roman plunge pool lined with red and blue waterproof
plaster in a bath house in an unusual position – expert Mark Corney
of Bristol University described the site as 'One of the most important
Roman villa discoveries in decades. It is clear that the site
is so important that it will be protected and scheduled.'
Pete Moore of the Cotswold Archaeological Trust has drawn a plan
of trench 4 showing the partially excavated plunge pool.
What is this coin – called 'the smallest of small change' by our
coins expert Daphne Briggs – and where was it found? (See the Time Team Live website for the answer.) And who found it?
The small Roman bronze coin – carrying the portrait of Emperor
Honorius, and possibly worth one denari ('the smallest of small change') – was found in Trench 4, where
the bath house was unearthed. It would have been minted in Gaul
between 395 and 402 AD. Very few bronze coins were imported into
Britain and the supply completely dried up in 402, after the Roman/Vandal
general Stilicho removed the troops for the safeguarding of Italy.
This coin would have been worth enough to buy an oyster or an
egg or a couple of sub-standard cabbages. It is certainly evidence
that someone on the villa site had contact with officialdom and
may have received an official salary – from the Roman government.
It even might have been dropped by one of the soldiers as the
troops marched east, on their way out of Britain.
The coin was found in a spoil heap by Tim Hand, Time Team's official metal detectorist at Turkdean. He runs the local detectorists'
club, which has been around for about 20 years and works closely
with archaeologists. It was at his suggestion that, when Time Team's excavations were finished and the site was closed, the area
was 'seeded' with £500 worth of pennies to deter rogue metal detectorists.
Resources
Organisations
The Cotswold Archaeological Trust
HQ Building, Unit 9
Kemble Business Park
Cirencester GL7 6BQ
Tel: 01285 771022
All manner of archaeological fieldwork and
consultancy. Excavations at Llandough (South Glamorgan), Nantage
(Oxon), Heybridge (Essex), Bishop's Cleeve (Glos). Volunteers
welcome on excavation projects.
Books
Roman Gloucestershire by Alan McWhirr (Sutton Publishing, 1991) paperback £6.95
Up-to-date summary of the archaeological evidence for the major
towns of Cirencester, Bath and Gloucester, as well as for the
rich rural villas.
English Heritage Book of Roman Villas and the Countryside by Guy de la Bédoyère (Batsford/English Heritage, 1993)
Roman Villas by David E Johnston (Shire, 4th ed. 1994) paperback £4.99
A brief guide to the archaeology of villas, their architecture,
and their role in the life of Roman Britain as centres of agricultural
production.
Roman Britain by Martin Millet (Batsford/English Heritage, 1995) paperback
£15.99
Full use is made of archaeological material to explore the social,
economic and cultural history of the Roman presence in Britain,
and its effect on native peoples and traditions. Includes a list
of sites worth visiting for yourself!
Life in Roman Britain by Joan Alcock (Batsford/English Heritage, 1996) paperback £15.99
Topics such as administration and law, the composition of society,
religion, entertainment, housing, eating and drinking are brought
to life through reconstruction drawings and photography.
Back to the Time Team Past programmes page
Back to the 1998 series page
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