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A magnetometer survey of an English estate near a buried Roman city has revealed two previously unknown Roman villas outside the city.
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The property is owned by the National Trust of England and is home to the Attingham Estate in Shropshire.
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The discovery includes evidence of roads, helping to form a new map of the ancient site.
The Attingham Estate in England, an 18-year-old buildingth 19th century mansion open to the public with 200 hectares of park, invites visitors to stroll through the buried ruins of the Roman town of Wroxeter.
Now, there’s even more Wroxeter to uncover.
Archaeologists conducted a geophysical survey using magnetometer surveys and uncovered two previously unknown Roman villas, a roadside cemetery, farms and a network of roads provide a robust history of the 2,471 acres in the care of England’s National Trust.
“We have seen tantalizing evidence of these remains over the years,” Janine Young, an archaeologist at the National Trust, said in a statement. declaration, “with evidence appearing in crop marks, aerial images and through small surveys and excavations. But until now, what lies beneath the surface of the ground has never been fully investigated.”
A magnetometer survey records subtle changes in a local magnetic field, allowing the survey of large areas in a relatively short time. The Attingham Estate survey has established a “comprehensive ‘map’ of what lies beneath our feet,” said Young, “providing us with a fascinating picture of the estate’s hidden past, revealing previously unknown sites of importance.”
The vast grounds of Attingham in Shropshire feature estates, parks, woodland and agriculture. In addition to Woxeter et al. Roman activity, Studies have already found prehistoric human activity as well as Anglo-Saxon architecture and agriculture during medieval and post-medieval periods, according to News week.
Previous research has helped tell the story of Wroxeter. The land was initially occupied by what the Romans called the “Cornovii,” who used the landlocked area for agriculture. With no signs of war, the inhabitants kept cattle and sheep and, instead of ceramics, they used leather and wooden vessels.
The Roman army first arrived in the late 40s AD and built a fort by the 14th century.th legion south of Wroxeter. A decade later, that fort was replaced by a new one built less than a mile to the north. The fort became the backbone of the future city and likely the demise of the local population, as soldiers occupied large amounts of land to build a new fortress, large enough for 5,000 soldiers and 500 knights, along with many workshops, warehouses and a hospital. The city grew around the fortress in the 90s AD.
“While we know a lot about the Roman town of Wroxeter from research carried out in the 1990s,” Winn Scutt, senior property curator at English Heritage, said in the statement, “the wider area around the site still has a lot to do. to reveal.”
The National Trust says that while further research is needed to fully understand the two new villas, previous discoveries in the country show that these types of villas often used the popular Roman style of heating known as hypocausts (a radiant floor system) and featured houses bath. , mosaic floor and painted plaster walls. A Roman villa is no different to an English estate, and there are many spread across England, including six in Shropshire.
The recently discovered houses reveal evidence of at least two phases of construction or occupation, with plans showing internal divisions of rooms and properties that had associated outbuildings.
Finding the two villages on the outskirts of Wroxeter, on a road leading out of town, shows how the ancient town may have grown. Archaeologists have also found farms they believe date back to the Iron Age or Romano-British era, which would have helped provide food for the larger city. The team also discovered roads that help map the region, as well as the roadside cemetery.
“Attingham Estate has always been known to have great historical and archaeological significance,” Young said, “which has now been confirmed.”
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