Feature Length | Time Team – Dig Two: Broughton Villa (Oxfordshire) Series 21

Transcript
0:05	[Music] welcome to the beautiful Oxfordshire
0:12	Countryside and to Broughton Castle the seat of the fines family for 700 years
0:17	and you might recognize it from films like Shakespearean love perhaps from TV Productions like Wolf Hall but we're
0:25	here to investigate a Roman villa that might not be far off in size than
0:30	Buckingham Palace in 1963 a Romano British lady was found
0:39	buried in a lead-lined sarcophagus somewhere over there amateur
0:44	archaeologist Keith Westcott wanted to know more who she was and why she was buried here his researchers took him to
0:51	the field next door when you stand in the front you can see that this is all terraced right down to the bottom where
0:57	he discovered a huge Villa lurking beneath the field of turnips
1:04	the turnips have been removed and the time team assembled we'll be using the
1:10	very latest imaging technology to see if we can find out whether this field really was the site of a huge Roman
1:17	villa and of course we've got just three days to do it I guess this is the future
1:23	of the past foreign
1:33	is just to the south of Banbury on the estate of Broughton Castle a motored
1:39	manner at the meeting point of Three Rivers to the west of our site is sway Cliff Lee thought to have been an
1:45	extensive Roman settlement a network of roads lead to important Roman sites all
1:51	along the churwell valley in fact we're using one of them to
1:58	access the dig site and our data Dome from the air you can see the Earthworks
2:04	and the parts marks in the shape of a large Courtyard Villa the GFS team has already completed a
2:11	survey of the northern part of the field where we're hopeful that the archeology might be well preserved
2:20	this is so on here whereabouts are we we're about here now we're just starting to see the north range of the buildings
2:29	um which will presumably continue in that direction we've got these really peculiar big
2:36	ditches some people think it might be a conduit running into the corner where the bath house might be but the problem
2:44	with it being water supply is you can see the Villas on the top of a yes it's
2:51	slow isn't it flowing in the wrong direction well it's flowing uphill yeah um but a pipe could go uphill it could
2:58	do if it's pressurized presumably this is very curious isn't it almost like a right angled corner there so
3:03	investigating a trench across there because the beginning it's an outflow you can often get lots of artifacts
3:10	being washed away out of the baths down the plug hole almost I mean you say baths we're making the Assumption on
3:17	comparison with other Villas that the bath is going to be in the northwest corner well it's an assumption we've got
3:23	to know haven't we yeah so we're thinking a sort of a second trench across that area there I think we can
3:30	determine how elaborate was the bath house you know was it quite simple quite like plain or was it actually quite
3:35	ornate with things like painted wall plaster even Mosaic floors and I guess it's a good place to try and find fines
3:42	coins other kinds of artifact I would love to be able to find some some coins or anything made of metal because quite
3:49	a lot of metal objects are really quite tightly dateable well I think we also want to look at is the opposite corner
3:57	and that is the northeast corner there and so the range comes up in front of us
4:04	here you know what you can say is because of that hump that very visible hump that's been made by accumulated
4:10	deposits and those deposits are still in the ground so we've got some depth of stratigraphy under there and the other
4:17	great thing about having all that stratigraphy is the crucial thing we've got to get in our rooms is doorways we need to know how people are using the
4:23	building coming in and out and a lot of Villas that just doesn't survive and it looks like it will here
4:31	although the geophys looks convincing if there's one thing time teams numerous
4:36	investigations into Roman Villas as tortoise it's to assume nothing without
4:41	digging should we call in the uh figure do you want to come around this way
4:46	a Trent to trench one the Mad Kit's going straight away in
4:53	trench one looking for the Villas bath house
5:02	I mean look Matt you know just Roman roof tile just literally lying around
5:07	all over the field that's it I think we're going to get it quite quickly it's almost like that Eureka moment when you
5:13	first take off the brown soil and then you see the stuff underneath
5:19	this is a huge area to geophys but the latest equipment allows Jon and Jimmy to move quickly so they're serving the rest
5:26	of the Villa field before they can move next door to where the stone line coughing was discovered
5:33	throughout the Dig metal detectorists will systematically search for those useful finds that Helen hopes will yield
5:40	valuable dating information the little Roman coin late Roman copper
5:49	alloy numbers Colin is a great star there's Roman occupation spanned from 43
5:56	to 410 A.D and the latter part of this is considered to be the Heyday for Roman
6:02	Villas if the geophys is right the Villa is
6:09	huge we're hoping to find out just how big the north range was by putting in a
6:15	second trench over the hump that Neil and John identified earlier so we're
6:20	expecting to find the outer enclosure
6:26	Roman building material is scattered all over the surface of the site
6:32	yeah this looks like it's been faced yeah um the air potential Edge there and that's just on the side side of the
6:38	field there there's more building material over there it's going to be really really exciting we're going to
6:43	find some really interesting stuff then the metal detectorists are already making some strange discoveries that's a
6:51	horn of sheep or goat yeah um and it's got this metal kind of a weird claw insert yeah it looks like
6:57	fingernails doesn't it yeah I mean in a really vile way [Laughter] we reckon it's an insert which would
7:04	held a reed so it would have been blown so we're in woodwind territory horn wind
7:09	territory yeah so that's definitely a shaped piece of stone isn't it there
7:22	I've got Stone down there there's a lot of stone yeah whereas pulling out different types of Roman roof tile
7:32	and with this looks to me like um
7:37	a stone roofing slate so you in addition to getting ceramic roof you actually
7:43	take the local stone and you always like make slates so stone roofing material incredibly heavy you imagine a root fill
7:50	that you imagine a room for that um and that's again quite typically Roman but aesthetically because this the
7:57	this is like the sort of tiles that one still sees in in the Mediterranean yeah
8:03	but how would it have sat alongside those sorts of tiles which uh this probably is a later replacement I mean
8:11	what you tend to get in the early roaming period is roofs made of tile yeah then in late Roman period they
8:17	moved to Stone Styles especially around here where the stone is very plentiful yes I mean one of the ideas is it about
8:23	in fact environmental issues because actually they're running out of wood to fire the Kilns to make the clay is it
8:30	actually cheaper and more efficient to actually quarry stone than it is to manufacture ceramic tile but certainly
8:37	the fact we've got both ceramic and stone tiles perhaps suggest
8:43	a bit of History here we've got to press you know we're talking about some time depth
8:48	as the Villa collapsed the rubble would have spread out and been compacted over the years so it's quite a task to dig
8:56	through it to discover intact walls and Floors
9:01	so this is a large nail which could have been used in the construction of the Villa the other thing it could be
9:08	because it's quite big it's about fixing the Box tiles to the wall yes but look
9:13	at that so that's a Roman nail that hasn't been seen since probably 400
9:19	A.D pretty much rebuild the Villa couldn't it all together but so in terms of the
9:26	um the sequence so it would have possibly been abandoned then the roof has
9:31	collapsed down and so yeah like so it's collapsed down so we're digging the Roman villa but in a very compressed
9:38	version yeah and I imagine that Alpha is abandoned a lot of the locals came along and said oh yeah there's some good Stone
9:44	next door so a lot of it has probably been look in the local church but yeah all the Villa is down here in
9:51	the right sequence and we're finding it yeah from the from the roof down [Music] it's not uncommon for 99 of the building
9:59	material in Roman Villas to have been removed over time and Derek and Lawrence
10:05	think they've identified some of it at the bottom of a field in an old barn on
10:10	the corner of this building you can see a stone fence post has been built in as part of the architecture but some of
10:16	these Stones could have found their way here from The Villa itself which is really cool Villas of this size would have been
10:23	expensive to build and expensive to run with hundreds of slaves and servants at
10:28	the beck and call of the landowner so stewards looking for Clues to work out how the wealth behind the Villa was
10:34	generated was it a working agricultural estate or a posh private residence
10:40	the sort of red and then a dip behind it a slight Ridge behind that another day
10:46	no I've got my special glasses on a series of steps isn't it
10:51	so this is uh what's the word I want like a sculpted landscape exactly it's a
10:56	good word describing it it's been sculpted by by human hands as it were it's not naturally formed like this okay
11:03	and it looks to me as if they hook this whole area around here these Earthworks are tons of storage might lead us to
11:10	something like a design landscape which goes with a filler right so these might be the ornamental Gardens essentially
11:16	right that's on a grand scale these are so exciting to me because they are very
11:21	if that's what they might be they are very very rare very rare indeed
11:27	a good water supply was essential to the workings of a villa for everything from
11:33	cooking to bathing it's very clean isn't it yeah no it's very clean down there as well yeah
11:41	so we put in trench three over what we think might be the conduit into a bath
11:47	house and carenza is working with the local
11:52	group it has been researching the site with Keith for years here we've got a line of this sort of
11:59	coming along more or less like that and then can you see we've got this sort of reddish stained coloring there just
12:06	sort of patches of it coming around like that so we want to know what that is it might
12:12	be an oven or something we don't know and we're not quite sure where this feature is turning that should be going like that
12:18	so this is the point at which we need to stop get it cleaned up and have a look at these features and see what they are
12:23	for which we need lots of diggers to get it done quickly so you guys up for that brilliant right
12:29	your trench awaits
12:40	a Salient Pottery in there beyond the north Wing there's something
12:46	on the geophys that could be a ditch or a wall outside the main Villa complex it
12:52	could be an outer enclosure or the remains of something earlier so trench 4 goes in to investigate
13:00	it's like a bit of time yeah looks like it I think we're getting to the top of the rubble now so probably keep it at
13:06	that level and just um widen it yeah thank you [Music]
13:12	John and Jimmy have finished surveying the main complex and their results have revealed some conflicting data wow look
13:20	at that suggesting that the Villa might not be exactly the size and the shape that we
13:26	originally thought in essence what we've got is now we've got the complete e strange
13:33	now the West range is a not quite so clear but there's definitely anomalies
13:38	going down there and then a whole complex of things going to the south I mean what is all that yeah
13:45	um yeah yeah I I don't know so if we pull the radar in
13:51	so this is just one slice of the radar there you can see buildings in the northern range
13:57	and in the Eastern range it's not showing a lot of buildings on the south and on the west now it may
14:05	be because they're at different depths or it may be they're more damaged but we've got so many targets now well
14:12	what's going on because you're right you say on the radar it's not very distinct so it's almost let's try and
14:18	characterize these free ranges in addition to our work there isn't bit
14:24	more to add to that before I think you come to that decision as it were if we can have a look at something else which
14:30	particularly in this area around here what we've got here is is a lidar image
14:35	this is showing all the Earthworks on the site there's the Villa with the the East Range there that's the sort of
14:40	complex that we're digging within but up around here up this Valley we've got a series of stepped ponds wow obviously in
14:49	a Cascade well in a Cascade coming down this natural valley down here these are very clear big Earthworks Stuart's
14:56	talking about these Water Systems here we've got these strong anomalies and I'm just wondering as Stuart had
15:03	said whether we've got a bath house down there or indeed what that is obviously a
15:09	lot of stuff about outside the main uh quadrangles we need to know something about that area as well Neil I'm worried
15:16	about as kind of endlessly expanding and unraveling things and I think we're in danger of spreading ourselves too thinly
15:22	so I think let's crack on with what we're doing for the rest of today first up tomorrow morning
15:28	let's review the results and then think about further trenches in the new data presents Neil with new
15:36	targets as well as new problems to resolve magnetometry shows features
15:41	along four sides of a quadrangle but the radar only suggests two
15:46	so are we looking at a much smaller Villa or have two sides been lost
15:54	Villas were often remodeled over centuries much like Broughton Castle which came into the fines family in the
16:00	14th century and has been rebuilt and adapted ever since [Music]
16:05	foreign as a parallel to what's going on at the Dig I'm here up at Broughton Castle to
16:11	explore its more recent history only the last 700 years or so with a family
16:16	member of the dynasty that's been here all that time Nick always used to say that architecture is vertical archeology
16:24	so I'm going to look at the evidence Martin finds a Keen historian has been
16:30	closely involved with Keith westcott's investigations I know you're here for the villa but I'm rather excited about
16:37	showing you this too yeah I'm excited and has discovered a number of mysteries
16:42	in the castle walls over the years which is Keen to investigate
16:47	so what I wanted to do was show you the Great Hall obviously when you come in you see this
16:55	this Tudor Mansion yes but inside what you've got is this 1300 medieval Hall
17:01	and living quarters 1300 down here and wrapped around it is the 1550 house and
17:08	there's some amazing sort of arches and things yes so um through here entrances to the to the
17:15	medieval kitchens in this house you get all sorts of Clues there are sort of mysteries really we
17:21	don't know the answers but there was clearly an arch there some kind of window or entrance hall there
17:28	just like here um what's all this about what did that go to
17:33	why was it chopped off there I don't know but this is all part of the of the 1300
17:39	house the castle is full of blocked up doorways and hidden surprises but what I
17:48	really want to show you is through this secret door here which is nearly my favorite room in the
17:54	house telling a story of centuries of occupation so the great thing about this
18:02	kitchen is that you've got 1970 to there and 1280 vaulting above it oh wow
18:12	we're creating a photogrammetry model to see if we can solve some Mysteries and
18:17	find evidence of a pre-1200 house and Derek and Lawrence are using laser
18:23	scanning techniques which give us the ability to move through walls without using a bulldozer
18:32	we're into the afternoon of day one and vast amounts of rubble on the site and making it tough to identify actual
18:39	intact archeology but we're starting to appreciate the complexity of building
18:44	The Villa on such a steep slope where Mark is now is getting quite deep
18:51	but where the top trenches is very shallow so I guess what's going to happen is you can have a floor that's
18:57	going to go along then you're going to have some steps down to another level go along more steps down to another level
19:03	so we're going to begin to appreciate how the Romans have used the slope to create a sort of an architectural design
19:10	so at some point we've got to then hit a wall or something that would have helped
19:15	to kind of brace the Earth against the next tier of the building that's right and that's what we're looking for now
19:20	we're over a meter and it's just Rubble Rubble rubble and we have though finally got to some natural geology and what
19:27	looks like an archaeological feature it might have been where a walker is so we've got our level at this end but as Neil was saying some at some point
19:33	between there and there it's got to rise up about that high exactly so I think what's happened is if you imagine this
19:39	sort of Terrace when the Villa's been demolished they've just tipped all this rubble down the slope and it's kind of
19:45	leveled the whole thing out would you have the prestigious rooms at the top or would you have them
19:52	down at the bottom either you can have the view or are you going to have the benefit of of the incline for kind of
19:58	water and gravity you're going to be at the top so I'm going to be up here having a fantastic view looking over my
20:04	my my building stretching out below me but not obstructing my view of that
20:09	amazing Countryside you what you might do lovely Summer's afternoon you go and have your bath you change you change you
20:16	dress for dinner you entertain your friends and you all kind of sit and you look out across the landscape saying all
20:23	this is mine I can I can understand that in this setting before you go too Kate away now
20:29	um from an archaeological point of view as somebody who has dug a few bath houses
20:35	in my time okay I don't think there's a bath house in that trench do you not no I shall tell you why because bath houses
20:41	they have uh pillai they have tile columns they are made out of this beautiful orangey red Roman cement
20:48	called Opus Signum which is made of ground up tile and it's very very waterproof and very solid there's none
20:53	of that there's no tiles there's no nothing that I would usually expect so where would you then be speculating that
20:59	on this site we might then find it because it's it's you'd imagine it'd be with the prestigious bits of the
21:04	building well maybe we're going to have to shift for maybe it's further up the hill even before it could be oh no don't
21:10	over there it could be because sometimes you do get the bath house as a separate
21:16	detached building so perhaps the bath house could be on one of the other Earthworks in the field
21:24	so you can see how that Eastern range matches
21:30	in the Dome the team are layering the topography with geophys to try to work
21:36	out where the archeology is most likely to have survived centuries of plowing
21:41	and that's where it starts to go across and we've lost it
21:47	on the corner because of the slope so presumably the ditches are going to
21:53	be deeper here that's why they're stronger and deeper there and that's plowed away or slipped away
22:01	can you see what's coming up you found my wall yeah back in trench one
22:07	we have our first signs of an intact Villa wall [Music] so we actually have now
22:16	was it one two three four stones in a line that's amazing
22:22	lovely they're absolutely absolutely and they're perfect they haven't kind of you
22:27	know wobbled or been knocked or anything beautiful line across there but the other thing I would like to ask is if we
22:34	push further down will we find a floor beneath I think that this might be below
22:40	floor level oh really yeah I think this might be a foundation I can't say at the moment but I I suspect that I mean this
22:47	isn't very rubbery because if you look on that side of the wall loose Rubble that might be protecting something underneath it but here I don't know if
22:54	we'll find a floor I mean um Mark can you can you see another face coming back
23:01	and then so we've got one face of the wall here yeah so there has to be
23:06	another face about where Mark is was kneeling yeah and then we we might actually have intact Roman masonry going
23:14	down to that level down there and so our any uh floor level or ground surface will hopefully will be protected by the
23:20	level by the rubble on that side but this higher up it might have been kind of plowed off or scared off that's a
23:26	little bit higher up one of the things I love about this is it gives the sense of the sophistication of the engineering of
23:32	the of the architecture oh I think Mark's got something yeah there we go
23:38	there we go so that's how quick set that's about 50 centimeters wide 50
23:43	centimeters here that's quite a substantial wall tracing the line of the wall further on
23:49	it looks like there might be a corner further at the slope the ditch in trench
23:57	3 has yielded some interesting fines
24:02	box flew tile indicates that there was a room important enough to install Roman
24:07	Central Heating and a lovely little find of a more personal nature
24:16	look at that I feel like I'm revealing too much but that is a that's a poultry
24:22	quantity of pudding I'm going to get it does feel like it's makeup or medicine rather than pudding doesn't it right
24:29	yeah no of course yeah pewter I think or something like that so it would have been quite silvery and shiny when it was
24:35	originally it's a little bit of a glint on it even now beautiful handle going off there I think it's my favorite
24:40	flying so far yeah yeah [Music] corner of the building
24:47	Hilda is beginning to see some possible walls emerging and a tantalizing
24:52	selection of fines so we've got some gray wear some Roman
24:57	Gray wear right so these are from pots yeah yeah that's a nice pottery you can
25:03	see the room beautifully and then we've got some animal bone as well here are those teeth oh my God yes
25:11	and then interestingly we've got some what looks like box flew tiles with nice grooves in it right so carenza has one
25:18	of these too from a hyper Coast yeah so that would suggest a heating system possibly
25:24	and therefore rich people big house even if we didn't know rich people big houses would tell us what we needed but then
25:30	the real kicker is over here tesseri yes look at that in loads of different
25:35	colors yeah so we've got some red ones some dark ones and white ones nice I've
25:40	been told this is not natural for this area anyway so this is right so these stones have been brought in to make a
25:45	mosaic yes I mean this has got to be the first Mosaic Trend that we've got now
25:50	all this information is being fed back to Ray San and Bridget in New Zealand where raysan has been working on a 3D
25:58	reconstruction using photogrammetry and the geophys
26:03	and really what I've just been trying to play with is the fact that you're going to have different stages of build with different heights in different
26:10	areas but you can really see that fall off between the Western East and how
26:16	substantial as I said those ranges would be it's it's it's it's quite a big structure I think I keep going back to
26:23	the East and the West ranges the the East Range towards the river you really are going to have to have steps coming
26:29	down you're going to have one of those little gateways and steps to actually change the level between the two areas yeah and
26:37	on the west to get a single story on that front Frontage
26:43	um by the time you've got the depth of the range it's you've got to go down
26:48	another story almost yeah unless you've done massive amount of Earthworks um so we've got some new GPR data from
26:56	Jimmy just uh so that you might find interesting here so the two bits that show up most
27:01	substantially over North and East ranges very clearly in the GPR the Western Range in the southern range are very
27:08	ephemeral if they're at all we'll have to think about this now to be
27:15	honest given what you could see like his Crop Marks on the field right from the very beginning
27:22	sorry Jimmy you're not the first person
27:29	yeah yeah it's uh yeah there's probably more missing than the scene
27:35	it seems only excavation can really tell us whether we have to downscale our expectations from the four-sided
27:42	Courtyard Villa that Keys saw in the Earthworks when he first located this site
27:49	so you came here looked through the hole in the Hedge and saw the terracing I guess in the hillside
27:55	here knowing that the sarcophagus was over that yes well walking onto a field like this
28:01	um all the things that I was hoping for were straight in front of me it looked like a plinth where it dropped off north
28:06	and south and Terrace right down towards us you can see those sort of terraces in
28:11	the landscape really clearly really clearly so I came back and walked it again and the first thing I saw was
28:17	hypocus flu tile so there I knew we've got and how did you know what that was was that one-time team as well no I
28:24	happen to have been the technical chairman of the underfloor heating manufacturers Association
28:30	so I'm an expert in underfloor Heating
28:35	we found hyper cost in all of our trenches suggesting that whoever lived here was high status and one of the
28:43	exciting things about this site is that we have an idea of who this person was
28:48	[Music] Keith is hoping he can pick up a signal
28:53	from the lead lining inside the sarcophagus believed to have contain the remains of her Amano British lady the
29:01	coffin was disturbed by plowing in the 1960s and an unguent bottle that was found inside is now in the ashmolean
29:09	museum but it's not clear how much of the burial was excavated
29:14	that it was reinstated or even exactly where it was located
29:24	is that it Keith that is it we found her wow well it's a lead line so it's given
29:30	a a really big signal there right can you tell which way you know one of
29:37	the interesting things is east west or north south yes it's most definitely coming north south here right right
29:43	because I can tell just from the size of walking back that that's definitely on
29:49	this really long yeah but because we're on a hillside here then she's going to be deeper into there so I'm just picking
29:56	up the uh this part of the sarcophagus yeah she does really seem to be on the
30:02	on the approach to the to the villa the visibility is just amazing
30:08	and how do we know that she was high status well it's this the stone coffin
30:13	really that's quite a lot of investment then there's the lead lining that's that's expensive I mean and very very
30:20	heavy I don't quite know how we're going to tackle um the investigation of this that's
30:26	going to be a discussion for this evening I think okay uh and and then she also had this glass bottle the unguit
30:32	bottle yes now what is that because I must say I don't have argument in my
30:38	bath you do have on your like a perfumed oil so you know you might use it to make
30:44	a body smell nicer a living body a dead body um and so yeah the Romans are mad for
30:51	oil they're always they clean themselves with oil you pour oil onto your skin and then have it scraped off so you might
30:57	use slime your onion might be used for for for cleaning as well as cleaning fragrance yeah absolutely so we don't
31:04	think that any of this sarcophagus was exposed in the 60s is apart from the top
31:10	so hopefully tomorrow we might be able to dig down a little bit and find out
31:15	more about who she might have been why was this young woman buried in this
31:22	position was she alone or with others and how big and ornate was the Villa
31:27	where she lived and which by the end of day one we're beginning to reveal terrorists into the landscape of this
31:34	beautiful part of Oxfordshire
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32:09	it's day two of time teams investigations at Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire we're searching for what we
32:16	believe to be a huge Roman villa buried under tons of rubble
32:21	pretty much rebuild the villages we're getting a feeling of how it was
32:28	engineered into the slope of the landscape rather than building the building just down the gradient of the
32:34	slope what they've done is actually terraced it in or teared it in to the hillside
32:40	we've discovered evidence that some of the rooms might have been quite sumptuous
32:47	yes look at that in loads of different colors [Music]
32:59	it's the beginning of day two and the team are anxious to get going on this vast site do you fears have moved
33:06	downhill to the south of the Villa looking for possible entrance ways and outbuildings
33:13	Matt is extending trench one looking for the northwest corner of the Villa but
33:19	I'm worried we haven't found anything solid to suggest the luxurious Villa that we were hoping to find
33:26	it's obviously it's a fantastic site but are you going to give me a bit of bling you know if you want bling
33:34	how about that look at the south east corner here radar oh yeah that's sad
33:43	right at this point the end of that Corridor I mean that is so clear isn't
33:48	it so this is deep foundations of a square Roman structure so potentially a
33:54	tower something like that standing quite tall on the corner of the Villa a prominent room
33:59	now that's so clear that even I can't resist I mean you might think
34:06	that's going downhill it does
34:11	and what we're finding and what we'll see is a further down slot you get the potentially for for better preservation
34:17	that range London is a very distinct service work and I think we might be going downhill physically but uphill in
34:22	terms of archeology so we're hopeful that we might find
34:27	well-preserved remains of a tower in the Southeast corner of the villa the radar
34:33	suggests it's at a slightly odd alignment so potentially from a different phase of the building
34:45	no walls as yet I mean it could be quite deep
34:51	and the first sign suggests that we might be looking at an earlier structure
34:57	so this looks quite early doesn't it I mean it's quite almost like a kind of early Roman or something that's
35:03	potentially quite important dating because it's just possible feature predates The Villa
35:09	the pots confirmed to be a large storage jar made in Bristol in the second or third century
35:16	a nice find but Neil be happier if you could find evidence of the wolves that showed up so clearly on the radar
35:25	Neil to John Gator we are opening up the trench and all we can find
35:31	is yellow clay we cannot find the square feature on the radar and this is really
35:37	perplexing we could put the charcoal side to come up now yeah
35:45	better news in trench 4 they're saying signs of something structural outside the main Villa complex
35:52	it is revealed an array of fines so we've got everything from bone
35:59	nice big animal bone through the oyster shells find samian well lovely and more
36:07	evidence of early Roman occupation excellent that's beautiful isn't it
36:13	some Roman grayware I think it's at the earlier end of the Roman spectrum that
36:19	is that that's the edge of the wall just running through there we go it's literally just there excellent so
36:25	we've got to take all that back to try and find where the other end of the ditch is yeah okay let's see what it goes on and see how that relates to the
36:32	walls that are coming up over so you've got another wall oh gosh oh shoot back there
36:39	do you think this might be the remains of the structure of some kind or just Rubble I I would hate to uh all right
36:45	you're heading your back I'm heading your bets it's safer that way in the northwest corner we had hoped to
36:52	find a bath house in trench one and the conduit in Trench 3. it was charcoal
36:58	yeah the karenza is now beginning to think that she might have found an oven
37:05	suggesting more of a working area I think there's a story starting to come
37:12	down a little bit certainly in this later it changes the orientation of the building as we thought and if that elbow
37:19	L-shaped feature was some kind of water conduit it's certainly been filled in with domestic rubbish afterwards
37:27	and she'd like Naomi our environmental archaeologist to take a closer look at
37:33	some of the charcoal soil be really interesting to see what's out there because the working hypothesis is
37:39	some sort of oven right so if it is some sort of oven then they might be cooking something in it well we do our best to
37:47	keep that well yes thank you friends that's very nice yeah we've just started to get some bits of charcoal and carbonized green out of French four oh
37:53	fantastic I'll get you some more buckets yeah fantastic excellent Naomi will float the
38:00	sample looking for charcoal bone and Grains to tell us what people were cooking eating and growing here
38:07	[Music] the northwest of the Villa is looking
38:13	more like a working area so perhaps the Posh rooms we were expecting are in the Southeast
38:20	there was nothing nothing in it nothing yeah that's not nothing and in 26 we found the elusive walls a
38:28	Neil's looking much happier where we have the wall coming through
38:34	and not only that It's associated with painted wall
38:40	plastic so can you see look at that you've got a
38:45	white background with red paint over the top so it's like a red stripe so you're really getting a sense of the the
38:52	quality of the decoration in this space so it could almost be like a geometric design of sort of Stripes so if you had
39:00	enough of it you could even make a dessert so you've got another bit there so that's the outside that's the outside
39:05	this is that is the trench there
39:11	there is that wall and it's going to turn a right angle so the interior of
39:16	the building is in that direction I would say that is spot on
39:22	to the nearest millimeter it's close it's close so all this overcomes and
39:28	there's nothing in trench six there was nothing in trench six when Gus was here last we were despairing and I guess the
39:36	lesson to learn is John's always right nothing nothing foreign
39:43	this is the first evidence that our Villa might have had painted plaster work or even frescoes on its walls
39:51	so we've got some sand there but we're going to break up the brick first exercise and this is lovely stuff that looks like yogurt but I don't but even
39:59	though I really like yogurt just don't hidden heart
40:05	taking Natalie through the process involved in creating these beautiful artworks
40:10	ah it's almost like I already had
40:15	frustration pairing a Roman plaster surface for his Fresco using a mixture of brick sand and
40:24	lime it would have taken several layers of the plaster to create a smooth enough ground on which to paint his design
40:31	Vitruvius talks it up six to nine layers but really it's more like three
40:37	different mixes of plaster but each layer is put on on two layers the first really thin thing you build up the
40:43	thickness I'm interested to see what Aiden thinks about our newly found painted plaster
40:50	should I come bearing gifts
40:58	and this is yeah yeah a bit of plaster painted plaster oh yeah and you can turn
41:03	it to the side and you can see the big hunks in yeah
41:09	that's a bit of probably brick yeah it could be a yellow brick but yeah but it's quite diverse sizes aren't they it
41:16	looks like it's a different layers that's one layer that could be a second medium layer yeah it is yeah so it's
41:21	actually three layers this is going to make Vitruvius happy this is high class right really
41:27	the likelihood is that this colorful plaster work would have decorated the villa which we think belonged to the
41:34	woman who sarcophagus was found in the 1960s before we begin to excavate the coffin
41:41	Jim is running his radar over the area where Keith thinks he's located the burial looking for signs of other
41:48	burials or even a mausoleum Aiden has chosen a portrait of a Roman
41:55	Lady of a similar Rank and age to base his Fresco on
42:00	I'll just paint the background you can paint the face oh yeah it's not going to happen so I think John oh I love it this is gorgeous
42:07	yeah it really is we know that the lady was 30 years old I think we found him yes and she would have been wealthy and
42:14	um yeah which we can see this lady is because she's got her hair decorated she's got her earrings and you know
42:20	she's she's performing at the very least the idea that she's literate
42:27	we'll mix pigments to match both the plaster From The Trenches and the image of the lady
42:33	and the purple as well the dot reddish color I think they were not put some of this into an earring just for a bit of
42:39	jewelry or something do you think yeah why not aside from the Fresh
42:45	other signs of found yesterday in trench too and Hilda
42:52	has found some more this morning oh look big big tile tesserae yeah like
43:00	from a not exactly a mosaic but a floor made of small tiles exactly yes yes so
43:07	where have those come from they've all come from this slot they've not been um stratified or anything so it's
43:13	definitely cut feature yeah it is a real Edge so when we was tripping this we
43:18	started on this end and we thought that this was a wall I'm slightly less convinced now because as you can see
43:23	yeah it looks like a layer of rubble that keeps extending that way yes
43:29	because it's it's it's not a kind of smooth top is it it's very choppy and it looks just like it's collapsed so it
43:35	could be it could have been a really nice wall with really nice Stones so somebody took the nice stones and left all the rubbish that would work yeah
43:43	and then over in this corner of the trench we've got some sort of other Edge
43:50	so the outer wall of the Villa should be on that side of the trench running that
43:57	way yep so we're hoping that this is some sort of partition wall coming in
44:02	then it seems to stop here so that could be a doorway perhaps doorway the Holy
44:08	Grail how we move around in the Villa exactly Naomi's been putting some soil from
44:14	Hilda's trench through her flotation tank and found more tesserae and something else of Interest we have
44:22	um carbonized grain so we've got cereals um that will be harvested and eaten sort
44:28	of two thousand years ago as well as the actual cereal grains we've got all these other
44:34	different seeds and these ones are actually from um Wheats that grow amongst the crops
44:40	so they can tell us sort of what time of year the crops were growing amazing um so yeah it's been fantastic all from
44:47	just 20 liters of soil you're saying that they're carbonized so that means that they've been they've been at some
44:53	point cooked or burnt is that correct it is and that's the the strange thing
44:58	about it you think well why are they burning their grain they surely they should be making it into bread or whatever
45:03	unfortunately sometimes your grain gets infected with grain weevils and that's
45:08	not nice for anybody so the easiest way to destroy that is to set fire to it so sad for the Roman people who have just
45:15	lost all their grain fantastic for us because it survives and we can see it
45:21	okay so the samples going in sample some karenza's trench also
45:26	contain charcoal burnt cereals which supports her oven Theory so straight
45:31	away you can see it's just hit the water this charcoal already that's just coming
45:37	straight to the surface all this adds to the evidence
45:45	had a more utilitarian function than we originally thought it feels all a bit sort of domestic
45:51	working area there's no drinking cups or anything there's no drinking cups there's no there's no glass there's no
45:58	no I mean you're missing those those obvious higher status components
46:05	[Music] foreign against the side of the wall that'll uh
46:13	one more of those I reckon John and then that'll do on that side then same on the other nearby Matt's trying to find the outer
46:20	walls of the northwest corner of the villa
46:26	before he can work out what the broom was used for what we do have is a very well preserved
46:33	wall so as soon as we got up to here we've got another course look just here we're up to we're up to
46:41	another couple of courses at least see very clearly comes along here
46:46	there's the edge of it can you see here very nice
46:52	etched the wall along there so and it kind of
46:58	you thought we had a bit of a turn there so we've machined down to this level there's still Stones coming up here so I
47:04	thought we'd just stop here we've got unknown here it's going to explore down to the
47:09	unknown and see what happens but to be honest I can't really see anything Crossing this way
47:16	John's sketching yeah I mean I need to get Henry to tie the
47:21	trenching but I'm sure that is going to be the right angle there we've extended that bit of the trench
47:26	haven't we so it's got to turn there so that's outside that's outside corner of the Villa first
47:34	internal room yep and then down stretching down the slope great yeah that makes sense obviously got some
47:41	interesting you know I know quite what it's going to be but it's you know there's some stratigraphy some archeology in there isn't there
47:47	definitely not bath house yet I yeah still there's still no sniff of a bath house up here and that's all well
47:53	that'll please Stuart we might have lost the bath house but we
47:58	found the corner of the villa
48:04	and now we're looking for a West Wing which appeared in John's magnetometry but wasn't convincing in Jimmy's radar
48:13	[Music]
48:19	here
48:28	there's nothing you get in the basis there's nothing in the whole of the rest of the trench so the answer to the
48:34	question of did the Villa have a West Wing at the moment seems to be no
48:42	the footprint of the Villa is still uncertain so we're looking for help with interpreting the geophys by comparing
48:48	John's survey with the floor plan of North Lee a nearby Villa of a similar
48:53	size which has been fully excavated if I bring in North Lee exactly the same
49:00	scale right yeah so it's really similarly I mean in terms of archaeologists this is the same
49:06	world it's the same size but North Lee has got ranges on three sides and on
49:12	that side perhaps just a corridor with a Gatehouse at the moment we're only re-looking it two but what we do know
49:18	about North Lee is that it started off as a series of separate buildings which
49:24	were then joined up and added on to have they got more money after time or as
49:29	they got more ambitious over time or both yeah I think okay so what comes first when you have that so I'm think
49:34	I'm assuming if you're building a big Villa you build a fancy dining room right because you want to show off to the neighbors and you need bedrooms but
49:41	everything else is a bit more yeah add-on optional extras almost you don't have to have a bath house
49:47	um which normally has here but From The Trenches we don't think we've got a bath house in
49:54	that North range we may have the Posh house oh okay so we thought it was up here but
49:59	now we don't think that seems to be the case yeah does that mean there isn't one or does that mean it might be somewhere
50:04	else well look Jimmy's extended the radar down the hill oh where the water supply
50:10	is and we have got well it looks like a
50:15	separate bathhouse now he's up yeah that's fine you know looking at bath houses fire they catch fire yeah so
50:22	actually having it separate from your house is very health and safety conscious yeah it's true it's the fire that you should be worrying about in a
50:28	Roman environment yeah yeah so the hum for the bath house moves to trench 10
50:33	where Jimmy's radar shows something that ticks all the boxes [Music]
50:40	we've got this sort of rectangular building here yeah there's some parallel
50:46	wall lines in there but what's of interest to us is is there something actually extending off to the West which
50:51	would be behind you right and also the potential for something curving through there so the question was whether that
50:57	tied up with anything in the magnetic data right um so when you look at the mag these black responses are very strong so
51:06	there we've got the building yeah and the possible extensions coming this way
51:12	this is part of the elliptical feature right and the very strong magnetic
51:18	responses are here which means what that looks as though it's been fired burning
51:24	so it could be part of the the heating system for the bath house yeah because
51:30	before we thought it was what we call an island buildings where you have a central room with flanking corridors
51:37	but the New Evidence is showing stuff coming this way so we're going to take a trench which catches the edge of what we
51:44	thought was the old building and heads into this kind of Heart of Darkness it's black it's black okay thank goodness
51:51	we're not getting melodramatic and day two I would hate it if that happens we're only just below the surface
51:58	ready we're hitting
52:03	here with that Chris is it a wall looks good for a walk to me yeah right
52:10	we're going into that Into the Heart of Darkness yeah we've gone full Conrad over here
52:17	if this is a bath house in trenchtown perhaps it was fed by a series of ponds
52:22	the steward has identified it looks like we've got water stepping been managed
52:28	stepping down the valley leading to a possible bath house at the bottom I suspect so we've got Adam's going to
52:34	send his drone up to survey the area in question so I'm very keen to get a much more
52:40	detailed model of this to to enable us to work out precisely what's there and visualize it better so you think be able
52:48	to concentrate purely that area there for me
52:55	the model will help Stuart to identify exactly where the ponds dams and channels might be
53:01	[Music]
53:06	the Villas only a few Fields away from Broughton Castle itself and while we're
53:11	here we can't resist the opportunity to try to solve some of its architectural
53:16	Mysteries including the location of a room known as a room that hath no ears
53:24	it was used during the Civil War of 1642 by William fines who was secretly
53:30	plotting against the king we know from a historian at the time
53:36	that they met at Broughton and he described it as in the room which hath no ears so you've got three walls that
53:43	drop vertically down three or four stories to the ground all you need is
53:48	one loyal servant on the door and no one's overhearing your reasonable conversations
53:53	Susie's heard about a room on the other side of the castle that may have been another Contender as the room that hath
54:01	no ears I I liken it to one of those boats you
54:08	see hanging off the back of super Yachts this is our little house sitting on the top of the castle so here's another
54:14	possibility so how much was it it's amazing to think that either room these
54:20	people met and plotted treason and if they would have been heard it would certainly have led to their deaths
54:25	absolutely no this was dangerous conversations Adam's photogrammetry is throwing light
54:32	on which room would ultimately have been most suitable for plotting I suppose we
54:37	ought to compare with the other one but I like the fact that that it just looks so isolated there that it feels like
54:43	that might you know it's called the room that has no ears so you can't be overheard because otherwise you are
54:49	going to be hung drawn and courtened so that one's a really good candidate when you see it from that perspective it does
54:55	feel very isolated down there doesn't it art plotter William fines raised the
55:01	regiment against the crown and fought with his four Sons at the Battle of Edgehill
55:07	here we are oh my goodness Keith Westcott discovered an important
55:12	horde of coins relating to this part of the Castle's history when he was investigating a potential extra crossing
55:19	over the moat which he'd noticed in the netching there were 16 of them and they go back
55:25	to James the first and finish it around the time of Charles the first so the the
55:31	thought at that point was that it was a civil war horde but there were some special coins in here which you didn't
55:37	really expect to see in in Oxfordshire three of the coins were Spanish minted
55:44	in the Netherlands and thought to belonged to Charles the first wife Queen Henrietta who had fled the country to
55:50	the Netherlands to raise money for the war effort the couple were reunited near Broughton
55:56	they made their way to Roxton Abbey which is only two miles away and the
56:01	king and queen stopped there it was the first time they've been together for over a year and we believe that in
56:08	somehow these coins were passed on through to someone at the castle
56:14	these coins show what an important part metal detectorists can play in
56:19	contributing to the historical record so it's definitely
56:25	oh I can see something and this is proving the case that the
56:31	filler site too can you see I mean we've got this sort of greeny which suggests copper alloy
56:37	but um that silver bit there potentially oh that looks quite silvery Peter what
56:42	do you reckon this might be a Denarius the coins are so small they're easy to
56:48	miss and require Careful Cleaning to identify and to date them [Music]
56:55	and I can see on the reverse as well we've got a single figure standing holding something
57:02	and again I think with a bit of research actually I might be able to nail what
57:07	this coin is actually Matt's use of photogrammetry to enhance
57:12	the detail of the coin helps Danny to identify it as a Denarius
57:21	we're hoping that coins will help us phase the building of the Villa so we're mapping exactly where they were found
57:28	just a archaeologist's power to surprise now found what could be the foundations
57:35	of a wall line In The West Wing
57:42	[Music] it seems to line up with the northwest
57:48	corner of The Villa in Matt's Trench
57:58	and the theory is that it's the width of a garden wall
58:05	it's possible that we're looking at something a bit more industrial than we originally thought and Ray Sands
58:11	considering how this will impact the 3D reconstruction [Music]
58:19	the Romans did which were terrorists and they had industrial purposes for doing that because that
58:26	within the steps so I'd be interesting to see whether it is a combination of working building and
58:34	residential combination essentially farm houses yeah they are
58:43	whether we get that sort of combination of activities in one place but also also
58:49	seeing whether you've got an earlier smaller Villa with the farm skate which then gets embellished into a large
58:57	got these Goods which sounds like maybe that's what Matt might be kind of on the on the customer yeah
59:05	Ray Sands reconstruction will be picked up by Stuart Eve Who's exploring various
59:10	ways that virtual reality can be used to push the bounds of archeology both on
59:15	site and for the viewer at home oh this is where it gets dangerous that's
59:21	all right I'll watch out for you there you go we're also creating virtual models of the castle
59:27	using Adam's photogrammetry Matt's 3D photography and the laser scans that
59:33	Lawrence and Derek have been conducting
59:38	the laser scanners revealed something intriguing about the blocked up doorway halfway up the 14th century stairs to
59:45	the chapel which appears to relate to A peculiar kink in the wall
59:53	but as you come down here you can see that this building actually bows out ever so slightly yeah as if there was
59:59	something there something of Interest or potentially a room that's missing with
1:00:04	this this sealed up wind over sealed up door perhaps being on an outside exterior wall yes because I thought that
1:00:10	makes a lot of sense because otherwise why would you have gone out like that unless there was something there that you were going around and that does fit
1:00:17	quite neatly if we step into the freebie you can see there that's the kind of the shadow of this uh this doorway here of a
1:00:24	sealed up doorway or window and that correlates quite neatly with that Kink coming around here just where something
1:00:31	would have come through there so it's as if it's respecting whatever was there before so that suggests that what was
1:00:38	here before is 12 something or other we don't know I mean the at the at the
1:00:44	latest well but one thing we haven't said just yet we will be able to calculate the void between underneath
1:00:49	the stairs so we're actually able to see how big a space is actually underneath there and it has been lost or
1:00:57	purpose it's just such Vital Information in terms of going a true history of the house and really being able to date back
1:01:03	beyond what we know in terms of documentary evidence there are definitely some more stories here yeah
1:01:09	yeah all this is offering Martin and Lord
1:01:14	saying seal a very different perspective on their castle and its history and so
1:01:20	maybe that's the room which Hefner is where they plotted the Civil War
1:01:26	away from any crying listeners that's fantastic I think you're the only
1:01:32	person who's 101 who's seen their house on a photography
1:01:37	by the end of day two with extended trench 10 Into the Heart of Darkness
1:01:43	we've discovered the skull of a horse [Music]
1:01:48	so you've got the edge cutting down and then we've got this horse's head so
1:01:55	it's just ahead I was thinking of The Godfather I mean literally nobody except me so there's a water feature that
1:02:03	Stuart outlines that comes down this hill so this so This ditch would seem to
1:02:08	be kind of like a sort of natural continuation of that in terms of the camera of the land why would you then
1:02:14	want to place a horse's head here it must be something to do with like
1:02:20	Superstition or ritual or even kind of informal magic that perhaps laying down
1:02:27	some part of a of a animal has some meaning which is lost to us
1:02:34	exactly why there's a horse's head in a pond is one of the many questions we
1:02:39	need to answer tomorrow including where the bath house was and whether the Villa had a southern range and we still need
1:02:46	to take a look at the sarcophagus where the lady who once lived here was laid to rest and Jimmy's radar is showing hints
1:02:54	of something intriguing near where he thinks she was buried
1:03:00	I am currently standing at the very top corner of this massive Roman villa and
1:03:06	just to give you a sense of the scale there's Gus hey Gus at the bottom end and Jimmy Hi Jimmy
1:03:13	who's been doing all of this radar hunting at the furthest corner so you can get an idea of the enormous scale of
1:03:20	what we've been working on I have no idea what I should be promising you will happen tomorrow all I can really say is
1:03:26	that you should expect the unexpected [Music]
1:03:39	time team is a hundred percent independent and funded by our incredible fans joining patreon gives you access to
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1:04:05	foreign Castle in Oxfordshire we've discovered
1:04:11	substantial walls and wings of a huge Roman villa and evidence that it was
1:04:17	decorated with mosaics and frescoes this is going to make Vitruvius happy this is
1:04:23	high class right really but so far it seems that the four-sided
1:04:29	Villa that we were expected might actually be two-sided it's not showing a
1:04:34	lot of buildings on the south and on the west but Stuart
1:04:39	is convinced that there's a spectacular series of ponds terraced into the landscape these are so exciting to me
1:04:46	because they are very if that's what they might be they are very very rare indeed
1:04:57	[Music] just a matter of hours left to find out
1:05:03	how many sides The Villa had and whether any of its Posh interior remains intact
1:05:09	I want to try and get in there and try and see what those finds might reveal I
1:05:15	think there are some interesting stories that we could unravel yeah speaking of which I need to go back and check out
1:05:21	the sarcophagus which started this whole thing how do we forget her this is women in history chicken
1:05:27	[Music] metal detectorists are checking the area in which the sarcophagus was found
1:05:33	then we can carefully expose the stone coffee to see if we could add anything to what was recorded when she was
1:05:40	discovered in the 1960s we're also expanding trench 10 where we
1:05:46	found the horse's head yesterday and which could be at the bottom of an elaborate series of ponds
1:05:56	we're standing here at the moment there there's the Villa yep you can see how it's been artificially created into says
1:06:02	of rectangles up the valley and if you look at the wider area you can see how the natural channels are
1:06:10	all giggledy piggledy whereas these are extremely Roman Roman so for instance
1:06:15	they pond at the top can feed water off at a higher level because it's higher than the Villa upon the hill so you can
1:06:22	get water to to the Village up there the middle level could feed water off into another level and the lower level of
1:06:29	course can can feed a bath house if there was one down here so it's a whole kind of water management system step in
1:06:35	down the slope in stages so it's always been decorative it's very functional as well yeah and each of these ponds are in
1:06:42	the valley to be able to stop them flooding over and causing chaos they have to have channels that take the
1:06:48	water around when it's really rainy and wet and everything so you expect overflow channels to flow down the side
1:06:53	as well look at the magnetics now we've expanded the survey you can
1:06:59	see all these water channels that Stuart's been talking about coming down the valley on different Terraces and the
1:07:07	main Channel at the bottom following this alignment and you can see
1:07:13	it's immediately below these really nice responses here
1:07:20	and the suggestion that that is sort of the drainage Channel going
1:07:25	down to the the stream on the Eastern side the site it's really incredible you can even see the the dams that we were
1:07:32	talking about they're perfect straight lines yeah that's absolutely amazing so the thing is
1:07:39	would they be feeding just a bath house maybe you could have a bath house you could have a mill even uh
1:07:46	you could have fish ponds it could be it could be a more practical space what's the most important thing here
1:07:52	is it the villa or is it the water because to me this just seems out of all proportion to the
1:07:59	size of the Villa maybe this is a productive lens remember it's part of its own economy here yeah it's an economy around Water Management fish
1:08:07	maybe Marine Products this is likely has been the Final Phase isn't it Neil when the village it's it's height but maybe
1:08:13	the fact that you've got that little aisle building right next door to the pond or whatever it is down there that's
1:08:19	the processing plant it's too much of a coincidence this engineered landscape must have been
1:08:26	a very important element of life within the villa so with less than a day to go
1:08:31	we're putting another trench in to try and find out whether the ponds were industrial or decorative
1:08:39	yeah just stand back Matthew
1:08:45	a Naomi is processing a sample of the soil from Trench 10. is that very
1:08:59	um yeah look at that straight away I've not even touched it not even touched it oh yeah this is carbonized grain oh my
1:09:07	goodness we've got more we've got more cereals I mean as to why the green is is in there if it's being moved by water is
1:09:14	is interesting but it's definitely in there and I've had seeds from most of the trenches so there's definitely an
1:09:19	agricultural element going on here is what you call a seed extravaganza
1:09:27	I don't know two thousand year old greens [Music]
1:09:33	grains found in this trench alone ports the idea that agriculture might
1:09:38	have been part of the economy of the villa and the pottery is suggesting that this was in use over many centuries
1:09:50	my sense of it when I saw the shirts coming out the ground was that there was quite a lot of second century material
1:09:56	and some of it fairly certainly is but we've we have at least now got a decent sort of later
1:10:02	third into fourth Century component while the fines are beginning to tell
1:10:09	the story of Life in The Villa it's hard work trying to understand the archeology
1:10:14	as Matt is discovering in trench one where he's been trying to find out where
1:10:19	the walls stop and the floors start so the problem that I've been having
1:10:26	with this wall here is it's a beautiful wall very clear lovely Roman villa wall but where was the floor where were
1:10:32	people standing and it's been really really annoying me for a couple of days but I think I've nailed it see here we've dug right into the corner
1:10:39	there we have beautifully faced Stones that's probably a bit of upstanding wall I reckon you would not have that underground you've got the wall coming
1:10:45	along here very nice very nice and then these courses are a bit wobbly a bit out
1:10:51	of place so I think they're probably sitting within a foundation cup but if you go all the way along to here you can see this course of stones is
1:10:58	sticking out and I think that is where the foundation is so that's up standing wall and that's the floor level at last
1:11:04	and on the other side of this wall you can see the stones or the foundation
1:11:10	Stones sticking out there and so that's our floor level on the other side is there anything oh my
1:11:16	goodness me you just find that yeah just just in there just in the rubble connect look at that
1:11:22	it's like it's a well I would say that that's bronze isn't it some kind of
1:11:27	copper all you can tell by the green and I think if you look carefully there's actually some decoration on The
1:11:34	Middle post excavation this piece was taken for
1:11:40	x-ray fluorescence analysis which showed a very high lead content probably from
1:11:45	solder attaching a mirror surface to the decorative back would be lovely to think that the face
1:11:52	reflected in it might belong to our lady in the sarcophagus and perhaps she was using the oil from
1:11:59	the unguent bottle found buried with her when she was first discovered in the 1960s the farmer who found her remembers
1:12:06	that day well we're playing the field not the corner of went up there was a stone not a
1:12:13	corner of it I thought well
1:12:19	so I put my hand in pulled two bones out they have a thigh bones
1:12:25	and but well let's put them back in so I did and there was a smelling bottle in
1:12:30	there yeah did you know in the ashmolean museum I understand yeah yeah and at the time they said it was the first one
1:12:36	found outside Syria wow that's what they said but whether that was right yeah well it's not it's
1:12:41	it's not the case now there's lots more of them but but maybe it was right in 1963. it just underlines how important
1:12:48	and Cosmopolitan this place is oh yes so far yeah yes when you found it did it
1:12:54	have any iron fittings on top yeah you got six I believe I thought it was six we certainly picked up there's a stone
1:13:00	on top of that you see which was about four inches thick what would be very interesting to know
1:13:05	is whether she's on her own or whether there are other burials here that are
1:13:10	perhaps a little bit deeper yeah which no one's encountered yet no
1:13:15	the only thing was being a deadline coughing she was obviously somebody
1:13:20	very important wasn't she absolutely yeah bottled the lead lines still in
1:13:25	there yes it produced a very good signal from digital detecting very loud it's very long yeah
1:13:32	thank you Jimmy's radar shows hints that there
1:13:38	might have been a road beside the sarcophagus or even possibly some sort of building but it's hard to be sure
1:13:46	we found evidence of buildings which correspond to the geophys in the northern range and the Eastern range but
1:13:53	what seems to be a garden wall in the west but the radar also suggests
1:13:58	possible buildings in the southern range so carenza has put in another trench to
1:14:04	see whether we can find anything but nothing solid has materialized so far
1:14:10	foreign the evidence in the trenches and the radar suggests that the filler was
1:14:15	probably remodeled over centuries and coins found on site might help us to
1:14:21	date these building phases and so we've been able to date this coin to within five years so it dates between
1:14:30	83 30 and 335. the latest coin depicts Constantine II
1:14:36	and represents a period when there are a huge amount of coins in circulation
1:14:42	this is a fine looking man isn't it I mean it's just such a beautiful coin
1:14:47	[Music] coins found by the metal detectorists is beginning to reveal when different parts
1:14:54	of the Villa were in use but I'm going to start off with first century coins now very few yes and if it
1:15:01	was in use in the first century there would be more but there aren't as many coins in use in Britain in the first
1:15:08	centuries later if you add in second century coins again it's background noise if we add in the third Century
1:15:15	coins though this is when the Villa gets going and you can really see that there's there's people losing coins
1:15:23	around the Villa buildings in the third Century but a lot of them are being lost
1:15:28	down here in the south what is happening here that means that people are losing more coins other more
1:15:34	people are they more careless are the coins smaller lower value then when we
1:15:40	add in the fourth Century there's lots of these green ones wow and you can't really see the pattern but look if we
1:15:46	take out the first and the second and the third the north range is seeing the the large amount of coin loss in the
1:15:52	fourth century but in the third Century Moore is being lost in the South so I would guess that
1:16:00	something is changing maybe a South Range is going out of use yes maybe a
1:16:07	North range is being built but the two together perhaps the buildings along the southern range suggested by Jim Israel
1:16:14	might have gone out of use by the time the Villa was in its Heyday in the latter part of the Roman period
1:16:20	so I'm going to ask you to speculate a little bit because these are obviously I think fairly wealthy or well-off people
1:16:27	are they Farmers Traders what are we thinking one of the theories actually that Sam
1:16:34	Moorhead of the British museum actually supports is that perhaps um England at this time was the Bread
1:16:40	Basket of the Roman Empire and actually a lot of Villas were in charge of
1:16:45	growing grain and they were making wheat that was then going out being turned into bread to feed the Roman army
1:16:52	particularly on the Rhine and so one of the ideas of this explosion of Roman
1:16:57	Villas during the 4th Century um comes down to that so if this is true perhaps the aisle
1:17:05	building near trench 10 was something to do with grain manufacture coming this
1:17:11	year yeah more like it was going like that yeah Martin fines has joined Theo to
1:17:18	investigate a line of stones which appear to be protecting the building from the ponds and correspond to the
1:17:24	curving feature on the geophys just next door in trench 11. the first
1:17:31	signs of a Causeway and another Pond are beginning to emerge along with a thin
1:17:36	wall that might actually just be revetment okay with a pond on that side because this rise up here you can see where you
1:17:45	see where my white car is beyond it drops down again this is the in effect
1:17:51	the bottom Dam holding water back up there you can see all the damp area that's the remnant of it yeah so there's
1:17:56	like a corridor that comes through here that might actually be an entrance okay um you know ponds on that side Pond that
1:18:03	side yeah so this might actually be in effect a land surface and then that
1:18:08	might be reverting it to to hold it back I mean it's just an idea okay by lunchtime on day three Hilda's
1:18:15	beginning to get to Crips with the complicated archeology in trench 2 in the northeast corner of the Villa but I
1:18:23	am here standing in a room right and what kind
1:18:28	of finds uh we've already talked about high status we've got any sort of status fines yeah absolutely so we've got lots
1:18:34	of boxed flu tiles which is yes the heating system small tesrae from this area larger tesare from the other corner
1:18:41	of the trench suggesting a mosaic so I would say that's a pretty high status room lots of domestic refuse so
1:18:49	it could be a dining area yeah and I'm still working away here we think there's actually an internal wall here and it
1:18:57	might be several phases so I've got one line coming in here but then as Sunny jumps over there's
1:19:02	another line here and then yet another one there so they may have been kind of changing up the rooms a bit but you'd
1:19:09	expect that because if you think this Villa could have been in use for something like 200 250 years you're not
1:19:15	going to leave it untouched it could be changing in constantly evolving over time so it's possible that this was the
1:19:22	dining room in which our lady entertained we've now exposed more of her coffin and
1:19:28	it looks like the lid might have had some decoration on it we're just revealing up the sarcophagus
1:19:34	really nicely here but we're coming on to a number of bits of erratic bits of limestone which we think might be
1:19:40	surviving parts of the lids and you can see where that would have been previously there with the iron bracket
1:19:46	but it seems like it's it's decorated so there are a three depression line depressions and three ridges possibly a
1:19:53	fourth one just there I mean it could be beautiful foreign only an important and Wealthy family
1:20:00	would have been able to afford a decorated Stone coffin such as this curved at the end and with a lead lining
1:20:08	a burial would have Justified an elaborate ceremony the grave would probably not have been
1:20:14	hidden away as it is now but may have been raised up from the ground and marked by some sort of Monument to
1:20:21	remember her by Hayden has been putting a face to the
1:20:27	lady by creating a Roman style Fresco based on the painted plaster we found
1:20:32	yesterday in Trent 6. yeah so I've just put on the what the
1:20:38	grease called the pro plows Moss the first layer which is translucent but flat so now we're just starting the
1:20:44	highlighting so we'll alternate between highlighting Shadow highlighting Shadow I am so nervous so keep away from the
1:20:52	fingers and just just pretend that's that's all I can see you can do it I don't want to ruin your fingers they're
1:20:57	so good ah there's going to be a lot of work on the fingers so no matter
1:21:03	it's better to go a little bit over the finger than not at all if we don't understand oh
1:21:09	you're fired well here it is it's in this little box
1:21:16	okay the metaverse and you're going to step into it okay Stuart Eve Ray San and Matt have been
1:21:22	modeling The Villa to explore how virtual reality can be used to help visualize what we're finding in the
1:21:28	trenches I feel a bit nervous if you're going to be sick let me know oh
1:21:36	my God it's like being in some futuristic world and yet behind I can
1:21:42	see this Roman villa it feels a bit like being at Sea you
1:21:47	know it's a bit sort of sea sickness feeling but I kind of like you you can walk around a
1:21:53	little bit can I oh okay well make sure you don't crack it yeah okay so I'm looking down the slope now I
1:22:00	think I'm kind of looking out down the bottom I've got I've got the colonnade and the
1:22:07	Portico on one side of me on the other and it is kind of extraordinary you are
1:22:16	kind of walking through the past I mean this model Neil we can change so
1:22:22	when when anything changes in the archeology we can start adding extra wings or a new Tower or anything like
1:22:27	that or if mosaics turn up we can put them in so you can walk on them virtually at least
1:22:32	it's fantastic I mean it really is I guess I guess this is the future of the past
1:22:43	details will help to flesh out this reconstruction and Dan has picked out some of her favorite finds that show
1:22:50	quite how luxurious this feeler might have been in its heyday
1:22:57	so just to show you here 's the a roof tile how fantastic is that
1:23:02	it's even intact with the hole where it would have been nailed to the roof how heavy is that
1:23:07	and there would have been hundreds of these all lined in the roof keeping it nice and watertight hopefully
1:23:15	these tiles required a steeper pitch than the clay tiles and in some local buildings both were used within the same
1:23:22	structure and whilst the tiles kept the rooms dry the hyper Coast kept them warm
1:23:30	the hype causes the underfloor heating but it would have come up through the walls so this box flew here would have
1:23:36	been on the walls heating the walls up going up vertically and actually on this example
1:23:42	there's a little side Inlet here actually so the air would have actually been flowing horizontally as well as
1:23:49	vertically under the floor the air flowed between the stacks of tiles like this one we
1:23:56	found with a little dog paw print
1:24:02	whiskey Martin this dog sort of legging it we made the Craftsman preparing it quite
1:24:07	angry actually Above This
1:24:14	is a mosaic floor oh the tessery which is you know formed
1:24:19	the Mosaic on the on the floor we've got lovely different colors here so we've got oranges we've got wipes or Grays and
1:24:28	the different sizes probably correlate to whereabouts it is in the Mosaic so
1:24:33	these pop quite probably went around the border and then you had the finer pieces to for the more decorative elements in
1:24:40	the center and another wonderful detail for our virtual reconstruction has survived
1:24:47	we've even got window glass no how cool is that so look at this here
1:24:53	two pieces of Roman window glass that isn't and it
1:24:58	is so fine as well it it is so you would imagine that was a modern piece of glass
1:25:06	and amongst the buildings Rubble are personal touches that connect us to the people living in the villa
1:25:14	this is a lovely bit of a a beaker a drinking vessel very fine wear
1:25:19	this is the base and just on it here you can see a thumbprint where the Potter who made this and dipped it into the
1:25:26	slit glorious and it's left the impression of his or her thumbprint
1:25:32	see that's the beauty of archeology isn't it that you want to get close to
1:25:37	people in the past to transcend the Gap across the 2000 years or so since this was created and then you see something
1:25:45	like that and you just feel so connected yes
1:25:50	the more we reveal of her Villa closer we feel sarcophagus
1:25:57	so talk me through what you found that's the metal clamp I was reading about right yeah so we found four of the ones
1:26:03	that we know about so we've got the one there a very bent one oh yeah yeah I don't have one here and another one oh
1:26:08	my goodness and it looks like they're going down around the outside of the stone sarcophagus and we've got the top
1:26:14	bit exposed really nicely but the bottom is still hidden away under this Rubble so what did they hold the lid on
1:26:19	originally yeah that's right and we think we've still got bits of the lid still around that being broken yeah I
1:26:25	believe so well and there's a really nice example of why we think that so this is one of the bits of stone that were placed here which beautifully flat
1:26:32	on one side and then shaped on the edge there and if we use our imagination a
1:26:37	bit you can see oh just like that would have gone in just there and gone all the way around say
1:26:43	um really nice to come back down and we're even finding bits of possibly carved stone or if you can see these
1:26:49	ridges on these two bits of stones so there's there's a story coming out yeah it's lovely archeology yeah even getting
1:26:56	a slight hint of the lead lining over the end here oh yeah
1:27:02	oh my goodness and so she wasn't tall was she she was only five foot nothing but yeah very small research
1:27:09	imagine a modern human event sort of expect to find the foot ends
1:27:14	down here we suspect we're deep into the afternoon and we
1:27:20	have substantial walls in the north and in the East but there's nothing like them in the trenches in the southern
1:27:26	range [Music] what is much clearer is the detail of
1:27:32	the pond system in trenches 10 and 11.
1:27:37	the line of stones that we had we've cleaned up around them your suggestion of um with them dividing the two
1:27:43	different areas either side of them being some kind of revetment alongside the causeway it does seem to hold true at the moment so you should hold back
1:27:50	The Water original as well shouldn't it yes this is the the same fill we looked
1:27:55	earlier on isn't it yes yes so the kind of upper filled the pond yeah so in this
1:28:00	little test pit down the bottom here we've got down to the Natural and just found a little sequence of layers
1:28:05	filling the pond starting from a kind of Sandy initial fill while it was still in use and then kind of gradually silting
1:28:12	up good it's got a nice shallow Palm coming down this direction how did this resolve itself in in Villa Trench
1:28:19	so again we've got some some dark Pond fills down this end of the trench
1:28:24	geophysics suggests that it's a separate Pond for everyone in the last trench right
1:28:29	um and you can see we put a much larger sundarge which has become a palm
1:28:35	yes okay um this looks uh particularly interesting yes so I think the the kind
1:28:41	of larger curving line of stones there is possibly the the edge of the pond
1:28:46	they've kind of put that there as a kind of
1:28:52	and then we seem to have this kind of cobbled roughly cobbled surface here
1:28:58	which I think possibly did extend all the way across this kind of patch where it seems to have been robbed out now do
1:29:04	you think it's some sort of pathway or something I think so yeah some kind of at least a walking surface around the pond and then that seems to come all the
1:29:12	way up to this which is the Western Wall of the Isle building which is then beyond us so the proximity of of this
1:29:19	aisle building and the ponds in in a line like this perhaps suggests this building has something to do with the
1:29:25	process that's going on here doesn't it I don't know what but that's really good I mean those two trenches have really
1:29:31	answered the question about are the two ponds yes there are two ponds yes
1:29:36	Naomi's post excavation work suggested that the horse's head in the first Bond was buried with grains around it so her
1:29:44	theory is that it might have been linked to the October horse ceremony marking the end of the Agricultural and Military
1:29:51	campaigning seasons this supports Danny's idea that the
1:29:56	Villa might have earned its wealth by supplying grain to the military bases across the Empire so perhaps the
1:30:03	impressive water management system was all part of this manufacturing process
1:30:09	with time running out meals drawing together all of the evidence that we have for the Villa starting in the
1:30:16	northwest corner which we originally thought would be a bath house you were hoping to find a bath house but
1:30:24	actually what we've got is this really well preserved Roman building
1:30:29	can you see this fantastic Roman wall coming across here and in the corner can
1:30:35	you see the very clear corner so this is the inside of a range of
1:30:41	rooms going down the hill that's outside and this room that we're actually in now
1:30:46	how big would it have been I think it would have come out to about here
1:30:52	and at least 10 rooms or something stretching down the hillside as far as
1:30:58	Hilda's trench all terracing down cutting down the slope yes so this is a
1:31:04	suite of luxurious really well proportioned rooms used for local
1:31:10	bigwigs entertaining family I think public rooms yes and then also perhaps
1:31:15	some more private Chambers and here at the opposite corner we've still got the
1:31:21	the outside wall that we saw in Matt's trench going along can you see that absolutely Stones yes and then we've got
1:31:27	another well-appointed room here so what this might have been a sort of dining room eating quarters and then the
1:31:35	building turns the corner again and now heads off across this way it's just vast
1:31:41	though Neil it's a huge thing isn't it now in the opposite corner this Peg marks a large Square feature that we saw
1:31:49	on the radar so one wall here but it keeps coming it's a huge room this is
1:31:54	vast and it comes across comes across and here's the opposite corner
1:31:59	so I think we could be talking about a kind of Pavilion wow perhaps a tower room you know what a great place to sort
1:32:06	of look out across the landscape have your your son down a drink but also to be seen as well but the big Discovery
1:32:13	was we thought this originally was had four wings this Wing has kind of disappeared you know we just haven't
1:32:20	found any evidence of a range of rooms on this side but indeed in this trench it just looks like rough rough deposits
1:32:27	of farmyard or metaling but I guess it means we've got a very open aspect on
1:32:32	this side of the Villa but doesn't that speak to the Poetry of this particular place that you have this spectacular
1:32:40	Villa on a Hillside and then all facing out toward the South with a water
1:32:46	feature cutting through in the mid distance and then beyond on that Hill
1:32:51	opposite some sort of marker to the ancestors I think that's beautiful
1:32:58	the further we dig around the sarcophagus the more it becomes evident that such an important Monument needs
1:33:06	more time than we have left to us we hope to return at a later date to
1:33:11	re-examine the burial and the environmental evidence around it
1:33:18	Hayden's depiction of our lady gives us at least a glimpse into what she might
1:33:24	have looked like we had that bit those bits of plaster
1:33:30	that we pulled up out of the ground just yesterday and then here you get a sense of what it must have looked like yeah
1:33:36	our lady in the sarcophagus just seeing some lovely Bright Eyes makes her seem
1:33:42	just a bit more real thousand years later current landowners
1:33:48	connect with her so that's made in France and
1:33:54	imported over into Britain it's called samian wear it's not like it's like they've got very best bone china it's
1:34:00	see how glossy and red it is yes and fine can we take it one step further and extract sound from some of these pieces
1:34:07	sounds yes then we know what they were saying
1:34:13	I mean these are some of the coins that came up this is a really nice one um which is a silver Denarius
1:34:20	the coin dates from around ad221-235
1:34:29	no I was forgetting to breathe when I held that do you know the feeling that's why everyone wants to become an
1:34:35	archaeologist that feeling that you were you're the first person to see something in 2000 years yes yes can you imagine
1:34:42	how cross you've been you dropped it yes
1:34:49	oh I can't hear anything [Laughter]
1:34:55	over the last three days the combination of aerial surveys geophys and good
1:35:01	old-fashioned excavation has given us a glimpse into the life of an important
1:35:07	Roman landmark the luxurious Villa that we've found might be slightly smaller than we
1:35:14	thought but it's still vast and it's a fascinating example of Roman engineering
1:35:19	and Landscaping
1:35:25	we know that some of the internal decoration was opulent with mosaics and painted plaster
1:35:34	[Music] although we didn't find the bath house we know that there was one somewhere and
1:35:42	post-excavation work revealed that it might have been near to trench to
1:35:48	but the setting was perhaps the most impressive and unique feature about the
1:35:54	estate with ponds and water Meadows terraced into the hillside perhaps familiaring and fully and maybe one day
1:36:01	we'll return to find out more about the lady who lived and died here
1:36:09	she would have enjoyed the beautiful views across this incredible Valley but
1:36:15	about 350 things began to change The Villa was decaying the Romans were
1:36:22	leaving and over the next thousand years this beautiful sight disappeared from me
1:36:30	for all of us it's been a privilege to spend the last three days getting to know this extraordinary landscape and
1:36:37	the Villa that must have meant so much to the lady in the sarcophagus
1:36:43	[Music] foreign
1:36:49	[Music]
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1:37:07	[Music]
1:37:19	[Music] foreign
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