Time Team has excavated villa sites in the past - but previous sites hadn't required permission from the Ministry of Defence. The site of High Ham Villa, now found on the Langport Firing Range, was first investigated in the 19th century, but like so many excavations of that era the results were never formally published and the exact location of the trenches had been lost. Notes held in a local museum reveal that several rooms were excavated in 1861; one of which boasted high quality mosaics and a corridor fifteen metres long. It was a mystery whether these mosaics, beautifully drawn and painted by the original excavators, had survived.
All this was enough to whet the appetite of Martin Brown, Archaeological Advisor for the Ministry of Defence who conducted a geophysical survey in an attempt to locate the villa. Results were promising, hinting at a much more extensive complex of buildings than previously suspected. Could Time Team finish the excavations started almost 150 years ago? Would Mick Aston be able to cope with three days of Roman Archaeology? We were about to find out.
With the team on site John Gater began an even more precise and detailed piece of geophysical work, focusing on features revealed in the earlier survey. With radar coming up trumps trench 1 went in and immediately revealed undisturbed Roman building remains, albeit rather unimpressive, poorly constructed walls... So where are those lovely mosaics then?
With Professor Aston keen to expand on survey results our investigation area began to grow - time for another trench. Trench 2 almost immediately revealed sections of a mosaic floor - but was it one of the mosaics found in the 19th century? Stewart Ainsworth thought he had the answer. Having compared mapping, geophysical survey results and the 19th century illustrations Stewart thought he knew exactly where the mosaics were - in between the two trenches we had already dug! With our experts not entirely convinced another trench went in - and came down right on the money... Or rather the mosaics we had been looking for. This was good news, but as digging continued it soon became clear that the villa was far from spectacular. None of buildings had under floor heating - so typical of wealthier villa sites - and, although there were mosaics, these were pretty basic in design.
As work continued evidence from our survey work and the trenches slowly revealed an L-shaped corridor villa. Then Phil Harding made a breakthrough. Construction styles of the two separate ranges of the villa, combined with dating evidence in the form of coins and pottery, told Phil that High Ham had been constructed in several phases beginning sometime in the 2nd century AD. But who had lived here?
Our experts think the site was home to a family of Romanized Britons who had enjoyed the Roman lifestyle for generations - the site even expanded with a new wing being built. With the gradual decline of the Roman Empire the fortunes of High Ham turned. Some of the buildings may have been burnt down and much of the stone used for construction had been robbed away. Phil even found evidence, in the form of postholes cut into the mosaics, that the buildings had been reused long after the Roman period.
We had visited High Ham hoping to reveal a wealthy villa. What we discovered turned out to be far more interesting. High Ham encapsulated the rise and fall of Roman Britain - a modest but successful villa set in rich farmland that expanded until, as the Roman Empire fell, it too disappeared into history.
