Posted on 10/14/2005 4:44:24 PM PDT by blam
ROMAN FINDS RE-WRITE HISTORY
By Suzanne Pert
AMAZING finds by archaeologists during recent excavations at Brading Roman Villa mean history will have to be re-written, not just there but at other important mosaic sites around the country.
Archaeologist Kevin Trott with some of the pieces of pottery found at the Brading Roman Villa site. Picture by PETER BOAM
Although his findings are still to be published, archaeologist Kevin Trott has compiled a 400-page report, which has dispelled some long-held myths and is set to take the archaeological world by storm. This week he gave the County Press an insight into the archaeologically-explosive contents.
Palladius, the supposed owner of the villa, is now completely out of the frame. It has emerged that when the villa burnt down in a catastrophic fire in around 300 AD, Palladius had not even been born.
There is now overwhelming evidence that the villa dates from the third century, not the fourth as originally thought from the style of the mosaics.
This revision of its date has repercussions for other prominent Roman sites, which have been dated from the style of their mosaics.
"Our findings have even surprised experts like me but it is clear that basing a date on the style of mosaics is a false way of doing things," said Mr Trott, whose fast-growing reputation means he is being invited to talk at conferences about his work.
"The work we have just completed has unravelled everything completely," said Mr Trott, 33, who lives with his wife Kathryn and son, Joseph, one, in Staplers Road, Newport.
After his excavations, which began in 2003, the pottery, glass, coins and other artefacts were sent off to individual experts for their analysis. Once those reports came back, all the evidence was analysed and pulled together by Mr Trott.
He and a team of up to 28 people have looked at the site from the very earliest period 8,000 years ago in the Middle Stone Age up to the present.
During the period of the Roman Emperor Nero, in about AD60, there was a high-status building on the site. "Not only did the owner have mosaics but also painted wall plaster and the interesting thing is that he could afford minerals to make the paint up — cinnabar and Egyptian blue, which came from Spain and Egypt respectively. Only five other sites in Britain have this and they include such significant places as Fishbourne Roman Palace," said Mr Trott, who comes from nine generations of Islanders.
The villa in Brading, as it is seen today, was built in 270AD, but it was to be completely destroyed in a catastrophic fire just 30 years or so later.
Soil samples suggest there was never a formal garden at the villa. All that was outside was domestic rubbish and toilets in front of the building.
Thousands of charred beans were also found — the largest amount discovered in Britain — and it is Mr Trott's view they were a staple diet on the Island, in the same way that Lincolnshire became known for producing brussels sprouts.
The beans were preserved by being charred, probably in the fire which destroyed the villa.
14 October 2005
Well, right. But during the active period of the Roman Empire, new legions would be sent out to occupy the provinces, even if retirees went native. Rome eventually stopped manning the frontiers, resulting in barbarians living on the ruins, as opposed to a continuation of Roman culture.
However, iirc, it's been demonstrated that higher economic development, long-term, in Europe and the Near East is very closely correlated with areas that were at one time Roman-occupied.
There are a number of theories concerning the cause, but the evidence suggests Krakatoa blew up about 538. This is the time it separated the island of Sumatra from the island of Java. Before that they had been a single island.
The Eastern Mediterranean, Southern Italy and Eastern Mediterranean were not much affected. China, on the other hand, was wiped out for 300+ years, which sounds pretty bad but was nothing compared to the 1000+ years for most of Western Europe.
An alternative theory is that a comet did the job.
Now, why did the people die? Well, even where they survived, the climate changed such that the dry high pressure zones moved in all around the Mediterranean. This fostered the growth of grass to the detriment of other plants, particular normal agricultural crops. Rats and mice do well in prairie. Black Plague is carried by rats and mice. The result was known as the Plague of Justinian.
Where people didn't survive well, more of them died and no record was made. Civilization ceased to be a factor in much of the West.
Among other things these guys had a tradition of a king with a round circle and an unfaithful queen.
So you're saying that the political situation in Rome was not the cause of the economic and population decline (and other disruptions), but simply coincided in time with the climate change that was the actual cause?
I gotta look through my bookcase at home, cause I think I have a book on this subject. It talks about the furthest outposts absorbed into the local society. You could very well be right regarding the Ossetians. The book has to do with Hadrian's Wall...the quest begins. :)
Since the Dark Ages happened many decades AFTER the German takeover, they are not connected.
A Fimbulwinter is not exactly a climate change ~ it's just an adverse winter weather pattern that lasts beyond one season. Things always return to normal!
Of course, that one was bad enough that everything got eaten and then they burned everything down to keep warm. When the Bretons arrived in France from Great Brittain in the 7th Century they observed that there were no people and few animals. In fact, it is claimed that the great magician Merlin had to replant all the grapevines in Beaujolais! The Carvajal clan penetrated all the way to the Jura mountains without encountering any other people. Obviously the invading barbarians had been destroyed by this disaster. In due course Ireland became the center of Christian thought, action and missionary work for Western Europe.
Very interesting. This is not an approach I've encountered before, but it's certainly not something I'll dismiss out of hand.
I appreciate your time!
Oh, can you recommend a book on the subject that I might find in my library?
PBS had a program on it. They replay it from time to time.
Thanks.
bttt
I get this feeling that Roman Brittain was a lot more like Appalachia than Beverly Hills eh!
HEY NOW!! I resemble that remark. 8^)
Did you ever drive though the mountains when they set fire to an outhouse? That smoke is heavy and lies low in every valley.
And Chariots up on granite blocks?
Hey, Romans invented concrete. Maybe the chariots were up on protypical "concrete blocks".
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That's pretty much my take on it as well. There were probably isolated islands of 'romans' though in various of the outer portions of the empire for quite a while after Rome itself departed for more hospitable climes.
Have any of the GGG'ers read any of the "Camolaud Chronicles" books? For those not familiar, it's a really long extended telling of the story of King Arthur. However the story is told as imagined by the author how it could have happened without 'magic' or supernatural events. I think there are six books in the series, that begins with Arthur's Grandfather Britanicus, a roman general who retired to Britain. Arthur isn't even born until the third book! It's a fascinating read. The author did a lot of research into the period. (about 500AD IIRC)
The way he explains how Excalibur was drawn from the "Lady of the Lake" is pretty cool.
Just FYI, the Britons didn't speak Gaelic or any Godelic language - that was the branch of the Celtic language family tree spoken in Ireland and the Isle of Man (and later on, highland Scotland.) The Britons' branch of Celtic was called Brythonic, and today includes what we know as Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
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