The CountrysideVillas and Farms
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Villas and villages: What are they?
Villa
•A rural house owned by someone with high social standing• Villa urbana – luxury• Villa rustica - productive farm
•A house built in the Roman styleVillage and native farm
•Settlement with two or more farms
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Reconstruction-Typical Farm Settlement
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Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts
• Celtic bean
• Vetch
• Fat hen
• Nettles
• Puffballs
• Hazelnut
• Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, strawberries, crab apples
• Parsnips, radishes, beets, turnips
• Endive, lettuce
• Broad beans
• Carrots
• Chestnut, walnut
• Apples, plums, cherries, mulberries,
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Introductions by Period
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Rural
Urban
Cattle Elms Farm, Essex Sheep/Goats
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Economy and Agriculture
• Market production
• Consumers: military (~5%), city dwellers (~10%), craftsmen
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Evolution of a Round House
•Early 1st C. Round house
• Late 1st C. Rectangular house
• c. 170 Abandoned
•4th century More complex house
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Meonstoke Wall Remnant
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Early 4th century AD
Meonstoke, Hampshire,
Facade
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Meonstoke
Drawings and Tools
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Lighthouse House
Villa
Wall Painting
Trier
norma
groma
Characteristics of a Roman Villa
• Rectilinear
• Stone footings and walls
• Tile or slate roofs
• Glass
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BrixworthFarmstead - Villa
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Villas
Amenities
• Dining
• Bathing
• Receiving
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The Bath Complex
Additional amenities
•Entrance hall •Dressing room •Exercise room19
Expansion of Villa Construction
• First Century –few stone villas, timber rectangular houses
• Late 3rd-early 4th century• Immigration of wealthy?
• Growing income disparity?
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Decoration
• Dorchester• Hinton St. Mary, Frampton
• Water Newton
• Brough on Humber• Crude draftsmanship:
Rudston Venus
• Aldborough Wolf and Twins.
• Colchester
• Verulamium
• Cirencester: two schools• Chedsworth
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• Wall painting – particularly faux marble• Mosaic floors: schools
Thruxton Villa[Q]VINTVS NATALIVS NATALINVS Owner?
Signature of the MosaicistFishbourne
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Lullingstone
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Farm
Lullingstone-Phase 1
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100-150 CE
Veranda
Veranda
Reception Room
Lullingstone-Phase 1
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Lullington-Phase 2
29150-200 CE
Baths
Lullingstone-Phase 2
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Baths
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Hot dry
room
Cold Room
Tepid Room
Hot Room
Furnace
Water Tank
Recreation
room
Lullington-Phase 3
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275-350 CE
Lullington-Phase 4
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c. 360 CE
Dining Room
Lullington-Phase 4
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c. 360 CE
Mosaic-Triclinium Apse
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"If jealous Juno had seen the
swimming of the bull, she would
with more justice have gone all
the way to the halls of Aeolus."
Triclinium-Bellerophon
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Bellerophon slaying the Chimera - Croughton
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Classical Tales - Low Ham
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Dido and Aeneas
Low Ham
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Aeneas and his ships
Four Seasons - Bignor
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Four Seasons – Winter - Bignor
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Terentius?
Woodchester Plan
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Woodchester - Reconstruction
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Wo
od
ches
ter
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Wo
od
ches
ter
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Woodchester- Details
48
Woodchester- Details
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Painted Walls - Bignor
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Big
no
r
Fates of the Villas
Few date after 350
• Burnt
• Abandoned
• Deliberate destruction
• No reuse
• Rediscovery
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