An “elaborate” Roman villa was unearthed by chance by a homeowner, a rug designer Luke Irwin who was carrying out some work at his farmhouse for his children to play table tennis in an old barn. He first uncovered an untouched mosaic, and later excavations revealed a villa described as “extraordinarily well-preserved”; which the Historic England said it was “unparalleled in recent years”.
The villa was discovered in Brixton Deverill near Warminster and took 8 days for the excavations. Dig findings include hundreds of artificially cultivated oysters, which were carried live from the coast in barrels of salt water, “extremely high status pottery”, coins, brooches and the bones of animals including a suckling pig and wild animals which had been hunted.
“We’ve found a whole range of artifacts demonstrating just how luxurious a life that was led by the elite family that would have lived at the villa, which was built sometime between AD 175 and 220, had not been touched since its collapse 1,400 years ago”, said Dr. David Roberts, of Historic England.
https://youtu.be/F8evXMSsCJ0
By: Archa Dave
