No … not the Canadian one around the lake from me (which would be REALLY interesting) … from Peterborough Today/Evening Telegraph:
PETERBOROUGH’S history books are set to be rewritten after a stunning Roman villa was found by archaeologists in Itter Cresent.
The villa was the home of Peterborough’s rich and famous 2,000 years ago but remained hidden for centuries and was until recently buried under potatoes and carrots at an allotment site in Itter Cresent, Walton.
The villa, which was the site of a large farm, was discovered when developers planned to build homes on the site.
Now city historians are having to re-examine everything they thought they knew about the city as it looked 2,000 years ago.
Dr Rebecca Casa Hatton, Peterborough City Council archaeologist, said the find had literally re-written the history books.
She said: “Even allowing for damage caused by the expansion of the town, evidence for Roman occupation in Peterborough is scanty, almost giving the impression that the important people passed through but did not want to stay.
“By contrast, the site at Itter Crescent indicates that some 2,000 years ago members of the higher classes of Roman society came, stayed and made a statement of wealth and status at this very location.”
Archeologists were able to tell that the historic villa was used by wealthy Romans because of the facilities discovered.
Dr James Drummond-Murray, project manager for Oxford Archaeology who carried out the dig, said: “The discovery was made in the summer, when Bellway Homes commissioned us to carry out a study there. The team, led by Alexandra Pickstone, was on site until Christmas excavating the site.
“Underneath the villa was an Iron age settlement, dating back to 100BC. It is possible that the Roman villa was built for an Iron Age chief.
“The villa was taken apart by us while we got down to the Iron Age site, so there is nothing left on the site now.
“This discovery allows us to look at the possible locations of roads and communication networks in the area at the time.”
Peter Lee, chairman of the Peterborough Civic Society, said: “This is important for us as there are not many Roman sites in the city and will show the importance of Peterborough to the Romans.”
The artefacts will now be analysed, before being put on display at Peterborough Museum.
A public display of the finds will also be held at the Paston and Gunthorpe Community Centre on January 28 between 12pm and 3pm.
More about the site
THE FIND includes remains of a substantial, two-floor courtyard limestone villa with rooms floored with mosaic on the sides of a cobbled courtyard.
Its residents enjoyed bathing in a hot and sauna-like bath, as indicated by the remains of the sweating chambers and under-floor heating system.
A range of stone-built buildings was located to the north. Further buildings, also decorated with painted wall plaster, lie to the east and a tile kiln in a small stone structure is to the west.
- Peterborough’s past rewritten by Roman villa discovery(Evening Telegraph)
This is possibly a bit more interesting than this local coverage seems to be indicating. I might have my geography wrong (very possible), but isn’t this in the same general area where Time Team came across a Roman villa a couple of years ago (See: Time Team Finds a Roman Villa!)? There were a couple of Roman forts/garrisons in the area (Durobrivae, most notably) and there also seem to be quite a few Roman villas/houses in a list of Peterborough’s scheduled monuments …
More coverage:
- Roman villa ‘rare and important for Peterborough’ says archaeologist (BBC … tip o’ the pileus to Alun Salt who posted this to twitter just as I posted the above)
