Ilchester Mead Roman villa

Ilchester Mead Roman villa stands one kilometre south-west of Ilchester in Somerset, beside the line of the Fosse Way, a major Roman road. The remains lie in a field once called La Chastelle, where excavations in 1955, 1960 and between 1967 and 1972 uncovered most of the site. Three separate buildings once framed an open courtyard, each showing three building phases. The northern building was only partly explored, so its full plan remains uncertain. The earliest phase dates from the 2nd century. Excavators found Caracalla coins and black-and-white wall paintings on white plaster. By the late 3rd century the villa had many mosaic floors, including two fairly intact examples. One shows interlacing squares with a central medallion and was laid over a coin of Valentinian I. A workshop in nearby Lindinis produced this work, known as the Lindinis Group. The western range housed a bath suite and yielded more than a thousand painted wall fragments, while the southern range contained a buried pot surrounded by over fifty coins struck between 259 and 273. The final phase belongs to the late 4th century. A new stone building with opus signinum floors was added in front of the northern wing. Elsewhere hearths and animal bones show the villa was still in use. Finds include a child’s lead coffin, 177 coins mainly from the later 4th century, bronze and iron tools, jewellery and over two thousand animal bones, mostly from horses, cattle and sheep. The bones suggest animals were slaughtered on site and the best cuts removed for sale.