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FULL TITLE: Roman mega-villa bigger than the Taj Mahal is found in Oxfordshire packed with trophies including coins and boar tusks alongside the sarcophagus of a woman The historic Roman structure is the second largest ever discovered in the UK The foundations measure 85m by 85m (278ft x 278ft) and date back to 99 AD It lies beneath a crop in a field near Broughton Castle near Banbury, Oxfordshire The land is owned by the third cousin of actor Ralph Fiennes Archaeologists discovered a sarcophagus inside the villa with the skeletal remains of an unknown woman

THE summer evening was autumnally cold and damp, the backless stone seats in the outdoor theater unforgiving. Many of the 8,000 spectators were irritable; most of us had shown for a rained-out performance the night before. And frankly, I’ve seen better productions of “Carmen.” But as the performers began to move, their shadows rose 100 feet and danced across the imposing backdrop of a yellow limestone wall. A marble statue of Caesar Augustus stood ghostly white upon his perch in the wall, his right arm raised as if he had just commanded the singers to begin their performance. When Carmen...

A series of finds unearthed at a previously unknown Roman amphitheatre in Chester suggest the habits of sports fans have not changed in almost two millennia, archaeologists said yesterday. Milling about outside the ground, spectators picked up fast food on the way to their seats. Stalls offered cheap souvenirs of the fearsome encounters...