Mosaic uncovered in rutland - my mind boggles

[LindaLooky]

I've just read about a roman mosaic being uncovered under a farmers field in Rutland. The man who found it said how amazing to uncover something not seen for 1700 years.

It just blows my mind how this can even happen - a posh villa stood there, then what? Did it fall into disrepair? How? Then it got covered by a field over time?? Would an area that was inhabited not naturally continue to be habited, how can generations gradually forget about a fancy mosaic nearby?

For some reason these things completely boggle my mind!

How amazing! Thanks for posting this, I'd not read about it.

I worked in a building which had to have some major repairs done due to subsidence

It was only because of this that they had to underpin, at which point all the pulling up of everything uncovered a beautiful mosaic floor.

Not roman, but the fact that anyone has covered it up was just bizarre to me. It was a small office which once housed a reasonably wealthy family. So at some point, we think 19th century, it was covered up.

Why?

It's beautiful, too, the uncovered mosaic in Rutland I mean.

My mind is boggled too. I live in Rutland and I had no idea about this until this morning, judging by all the posts in our local social media groups no one did which is remarkable because it’s such a small area.

@TheFairyCaravan

My mind is boggled too. I live in Rutland and I had no idea about this until this morning, judging by all the posts in our local social media groups no one did which is remarkable because it’s such a small area.

It’s deliberately been kept quiet to protect the site. I’m local too, can’t wait to know more

It's such a lucky find.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-59391650

It’s deliberately been kept quiet to protect the site. I’m local too, can’t wait to know more smile

Ooh, I know. I just can’t believe that no one has noticed anything amiss iyswim

I wonder if there were so many nice roman things about people took them for granted and weren't bothered if they got covered in a field (!). Like the victorians just demolished castles and historic sites to build railways - more bothered about the future than the past.

The guy who found it was interviewed on the today programme this morning on radio 4. Worth a listen. Just before 8 am I think?

They've covered it back up now.

Read here re the Woodchester mosaic uncovered in a churchyard.

.....en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodchester_Roman_Villa

The villa would have been abandoned when the Romans left Britain. Years of weather would have caused the villa walls to collapse, then the floors become covered in soil etc. Stones may have been carted off to form parts of other dwellings elsewhere.
The places would have become forgotten about as there probably wasn't such interest in archeology as we have now.

I don't understand how there are layers of soil over ruins, where does it all come from? Is there a point where the villa is midway in soil so half is sticking out? and why are half the tiles missing, was it part demolished or will they find all the missing tiles? My mind is blown.
Oh, and how did someone happen upon it only now on a walk if it is buried...

It’s fantastic, I keep looking at the pics again and again.
I bet I have unknowingly walked over it at some point.

More info here:

historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/rutland-roman-villa-mosaic-protected/

@SirYawnsAlot I'm picturing worms etc wiggling about and over 1700 years all that wiggling makes bits of tile come to the surface and get spotted by the farmer. Haha I'll await a proper answer...

I used to volunteer for an education team at a local museum, with amazing local mosaics, some of which had been set by the victorians into the museum floor. The children couldn't believe they were allowed to walk on a real 2000 year old mosaic!

As someone said up thread, the stone was usually taken away and reused, the tiny mosaic tiles were of no practical use to Saxon farmers so mostly just left in situ and many were ploughed through. Occasionally trees would grow through them.

@LindaLooky

I've just read about a roman mosaic being uncovered under a farmers field in Rutland. The man who found it said how amazing to uncover something not seen for 1700 years.

It just blows my mind how this can even happen - a posh villa stood there, then what? Did it fall into disrepair? How? Then it got covered by a field over time?? Would an area that was inhabited not naturally continue to be habited, how can generations gradually forget about a fancy mosaic nearby?

For some reason these things completely boggle my mind!

I’m completely in awe of it also.

I travel extensively to see Mosaics (amongst other things) and this recent find has me flabbergasted.

I mean just how do you manage to be wandering along and suddenly come across a find like this.

Most mosaics discovered these days are usually documented and re-covered , it's extremely expensive and complex to remove them safely and they need a large area to display them properly.

That's a brilliant link @EdithWeston, thanks!

There's a Roman villa site near my parents in rural Lincolnshire. The villas became abandoned as the Roman Empire and landholders retreated. By the time the population started to grow again the villas were long overgrown and stone etc removed.

I imagine they got overgrown naturally but I think there's always an element in humans of thinking ahead and wanting to be modern. To the recent descendants of the Romans it'd just be old-fashioned, like people covering or removing Victorian features nowadays. Or old buildings demolished post war and the modern 60s ones coming in. Our 20s house had beautiful doors and tiles covered up by hideous 60s house "improvements", my dad even gave me his old DIY book when we had our first house from his youth in 70s which had chapters along the lines of "hiding those nasty Victorian features", it's what prompted us to look behind boxed in Bannister's and flat but heavy doors.

If Roman floors were found everywhere because they were looked after all these years it wouldn't be an amazing precious find.

It's an amazing story, isn't it?

What amazes me, is that vegetation didn’t just grow through it - and others similar - and break them up. The tiny tiles must be so tough and impermeable.

A petrol station near us closed and was left empty, with a massive concrete forecourt, for at least 2 years. During that time so many plants managed to take hold that you could barely see the concrete any more - it was more like looking at a field.

@SirYawnsAlot

I don't understand how there are layers of soil over ruins, where does it all come from? Is there a point where the villa is midway in soil so half is sticking out? and why are half the tiles missing, was it part demolished or will they find all the missing tiles? My mind is blown. Oh, and how did someone happen upon it only now on a walk if it is buried...

This boggles me too. I remember studying Greek classics and there was an archaeology module and I remember thinking "but how do things end up covered, is, effectively everything sinking all the time? And we're much higher up relatively now than before because there are all these things underneath us?!"

My old church was second, so built around 900 AD, and it was built using the stones from the roman villa.

I have read that the colosseum isn't in the condition it's in due falling apart due to age, it's because it has been stripped of everything possible by the locals for building purposes.

Aargh autocorrect- SAXON.