The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Roman Britain: civil and rural society
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Bignor (West Sussex) or Woodchester
(Gloucestershire), which stand
comparison with the great
continental villas, though there were
also some much more modest
establishments of this date, such as
Barnack (Cambridgeshire).
In the first spate of the provision
of mosaics at the end of the second
century, they were almost all laid in
the new mansions in the ‘large’ towns.
The main phase of mosaic laying in
Britain, however, was not until the first
half of the fourth century, and now
the majority of these were laid at villas,
with some also at residences in the
‘large’ towns, reflecting the shift in
display to the private sphere and the
growing importance of rural seats visà-vis
the main towns. Many of these
mosaics showed divine figures or
mythical scenes, all of which were
taken from Graeco-Roman, not Celtic,
culture and religion (including
Christianity). Until recently, it was
assumed that a villa was the residence
of a land-owning male aristocrat, his
family and dependants. This accorded
with the picture derived from the
Roman agrarian writers and also
unconsciously reflected the pattern of
the modern British land-owning
aristocracy: the villa seen as protocountry-house.
More recently, it has
been argued that some villa plans are
more amenable to dissection as a series
of units of differing size and status,
and thus rather than reflecting the
picture outlined above, might in fact
show multiple occupancy of a single
villa, perhaps by different branches of
a descent group in a ‘Celtic’ fashion
(Smith 1978). Though this suggestion
is not universally accepted, it does
illustrate how unstated preconceptions
can influence interpretation, and how
new approaches can be applied to old
evidence.
Figure 9.5 Gorhambury, Hertfordshire. (A) The Late Iron Age settlement;
(B) the Early Roman period settlement; (C) the second-century villa; (D) the
villa in the third century.
Source: Neal, D.S. et al., 1990. Excavation of the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval
Settlement at Gorhambury, St Albans. London: English Heritage Archaeological
Report 14.