Posted on 04/20/2016 10:39:01 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The geraniums grew in an oblong stone vessel, and no one ever thought much about it. But when Luke Irwin, a rug designer in the county of Wiltshire, England, hired workmen to lay electric cables under his yard, so that his son could have light in a barn when the family played table tennis, they uncovered an intricate mosaic floor of red, blue and white tiles only 18 inches down.
Mr. Irwin called the local council, which sent archaeologists who discovered the remains of a lavish Roman villa under his extensive yard, and told him that the flowers were growing in what had been a child's coffin...
News of the find, which occurred last summer, was reported by the Press Association, the British news agency, and filled the Sunday papers here.
In an eight-day dig in the property, near Tisbury, archaeologists also found coins, jewelry, pottery, a well, under-floor heating pipes, and the shells of hundreds of oysters and whelks, which had apparently been farmed, harvested and then carried 45 miles into the countryside in barrels of salt water, indicating that the Roman owners were people of some standing and wealth.
Historic England called the find "unparalleled in recent years," in part because the remains of the villa, with its outbuildings, were so undisturbed, and it is hoping to get more funds for a more complete dig. It estimates that the villa had 20 to 25 rooms on the ground floor alone.
Dating from between A.D. 175 and 220, the home is thought to have been three stories high, and survived the collapse of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Saxons.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Barn conversion leads to amazing find of palatial Roman villa Guardian UK
- Fishbourne palace, Chichester
Most of the palace's sumptuously decorated rooms had mosaic floors. However, a serious fire in the late third century destroyed most of it and it was not rebuilt.- Chedworth, Gloucestershire
One of the largest Roman buildings in Britain, the villa was built in phases over 200 years and transformed into a palace arranged around three sides of a courtyard. Buildings included a heated west wing and two separate bathing suites, one for damp heat and one for dry.- Turkdean, Cirencester
Site of a major Roman villa complex which appears to have been occupied from the late second century until the end of the fourth. Coins, pottery, floor tiles, millstone fragments and a stone-lined water course have also been found, while aerial photographs have suggested a substantial complex.- Brading, Isle of Wight
All 12 of the villa's ground-floor rooms survived. Artefacts include pottery and jewellery, while floor mosaics include images of Orpheus, Bacchus, a cockerel-headed man and gladiators.- Box villa, Wiltshire
The building probably contained at least 50 rooms, including a huge reception hall that was 40ft long, 20ft wide and 30ft high. Many rooms had central heating, most had glass windows and the interior walls were plastered, painted and decorated.
Since it was not mentioned again in the article, I guess the kid no longer has a place to play table tennis.
OK, all that’s left for him is video games and street gangs. He will probably end up a fat little gang-banger with a long criminal record.
Damn Romans, It’s all their fault.
Romani ite domum.
“Dating from between A.D. 175 and 220, the home is thought to have been three stories high, and survived the collapse of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Saxons.”
I can see it now, the ancient prequel to Downton Abbey. Robertus Granthamus: “Bloody Saxon barbarians, there goes the neighborhood. Ma-ma won’t be pleased by this”.
Old dead white dudes....
sheesh....
The link to the Box villa is really neat - lots of short videos showing how roofs were built, mosaics laid, etc.
-JT
;’)
WhelksWhelks are snails that live in sea water. Their spiral shell is pale brown, though it's usually covered in algae or small barnacles. Like Periwinkles, a Whelk has a scale called an "operculum" that it closes to seal itself up inside its shell.
They have a single, large foot. They will live about 10 to 15 years.
Those Whelk who are born first in the egg bunches will often eat the unborn or just born ones.
Whelks have a good sense of smell to detect their prey. When they smell dinner, they can move about 4 inches (10 cm) a minute. To attack mussels, a Whelk will sit by a mussel, until a mussel is forced to open its shell to breathe or eat. Then, the Whelk forces its snout rapidly in, so that the shell can't be closed any, and the teeth start eating the mussel's flesh inside.
Larger Whelks, such as the Lightning Whelk, Busycon contrarium, found in warmer waters, are larger and so have a large and powerful enough foot that they can force clam shells open.
The North Atlantic Whelk (aka Buccinum undatumis) lives in the North Atlantic from Florida to Newfoundland and grows to be 3 to 6 inches (7 1/2 to 15 cm) long. It eats other shellfish, and has teeth on its tongue that it uses to bore a hole through shells.
Whelks are eaten in England, Italy and Japan; they are not eaten much in North America.
They can be gathered on shores when the tide is low, or caught by putting bait for them in traps.
They are easy to extract from their shells. Commercially, they are processed by crushing the shells, then washing the shells away. Because some shell may be stuck into the meat during crushing, a powerful "turbo washer" is used to blast that away.
Whelks can be bought pickled in jars, tinned in brine, or frozen.
Cooking Tips
To cook, boil fresh ones in shell in salted water for 10 minutes. Overcooking will toughen the meat and make it harder to extract from the shells.
-snip-
:’) Wish there were Roman ruins around here...
:’)
An artist’s impression of what the villa would have looked like in Roman times. Photograph: PR
Archaeologists are exploring several sites near Luke Irwin’s home ['Civ sez: the Irwin home is pretty boss lookin']
Luke Irwin was laying electric cables at his farmhouse when he came across an untouched Roman mosaic. Photograph: PA
A stone planter which had been holding geraniums by Mr Irwin's kitchen was also identified by experts as a Roman child's coffin. Photograph: PA
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