Archaeologists have revealed excavations at a Roman villa complex in Rutland include one of Britain’s earliest barn conversions featuring a hot steam room.
Experts have completed their work at the site, having previously unearthed several buildings and a rare mosaic – one of only a handful of such in Europe.
The team examined a building, similar in size to a small church, which may have started out as timber barn but was converted to stone and underwent a series of internal changes.
One end was used as a dwelling, while the other was kept for agricultural or craft work.
But the standout feature was a Roman-style bath suite consisting of a hot steam room, a warm room and a cold plunge pool.
A team from the University of Leicester’s Archaeological Services (ULAS), who worked alongside Historic England, think it was the home of wealthy owners in the late Roman period, between the 3rd and 4th century AD.
The villa was first discovered on the farmland in 2020 and the site has been judged so important it has been officially protected as a scheduled monument.
John Thomas from ULAS said: “It’s difficult to overstate the significance of this Roman villa complex to our understanding of life in late Roman Britain.
“While previous excavations of individual buildings, or smaller scale villas, have given us a snapshot, this discovery in Rutland is much more complete.”
Fresh excavations
Following new digging at the site, experts said they gathered more insight into the impressive mosaic which was fully exposed to reveal three panels.
It has been described as one of the most remarkable and significant Roman mosaics ever found in Britain, depicting scenes from Homer’s The Iliad, which tells the story of the Trojan War.
The site itself was discovered during lockdown in 2021 by Jim Irvine, whose father Brian Naylor owns the farmland.
He alerted experts after he found some unusual pottery on his land, and strange crop marks when viewing satellite imagery.
In 2022, archaeologists returned to the site and continued their work – revealing buildings of different sizes, suggesting a thriving villa set-up associated with a range of activities.
Painted wall plaster, fragments of polished marble and broken stone columns indicated the main villa building – which included an underfloor heating system – was well decorated, and the owners wanted to show off their wealth and knowledge of Roman culture.
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‘Built clearly to impress’
In one corridor, experts found a well-preserved mosaic with a kaleidoscopic geometric design, probably of similar date to the Trojan War mosaic.
That mosaic forms the floor of what’s thought to be a large dining or entertaining area.
Although they’re common in Roman buildings, the Rutland mosaic is unique in the UK.
Ian Barnes, Historic England senior archaeologist and project manager of HE excavation, said the site was a “remarkable place” which was “built for comfort, and clearly to impress – but who?”.
He added: “analysis of our findings… will tell us so much more about the people who lived here, and their connections”.
