evaluation excavation

The evaluation revealed that:

• • the room containing the mosaic floor was connected to a wall that extended to the southeast. It is not certain if this was a boundary wall or the external wall of a building;
  • the buildings identified by previous geophysical surveys elsewhere in the field were Romano-British, but were more likely to have had agricultural functions;
  • there is very little evidence for occupation at the site prior to AD 300;
  • the site seems to have been occupied until the end of the 4th or the early 5th centuries;
  • Post-Roman activity in the trenches was limited to a substantial stone-built post-medieval field drain, robbing of stone from Roman walls, and other relatively recent drainage features;
  • in general, the latest archaeological deposits survive well beneath the modern ground surface.

The archaeological remains encountered in the evaluation trenches show that the accepted reconstruction of the plan of the buildings is incorrect and needs to be reconsidered (indeed, it is no longer certain that the mosaic was part of a building we can safely call a ‘villa’). Trench 1 intersected with the 1965 trench to lift the mosaic, but also located the lower courses of a wall bonded to the foundations of the mosaic room that extended for at least 14 m to the southeast.

This was probably a boundary wall, confirming that the mosaic existed as part of a larger building complex built in a single episode. Initial examination of the coins and pottery suggests that this took place no earlier than the late 3rd century and that occupation continued at least to the end of the 4th century.

The evaluation project has confirmed that, if the mosaic had been part of a ‘villa’ building, it was not of a courtyard villa as Kenneth Painter originally proposed. All we can say for certain at the moment is that the famous mosaic decorated the floor of a room within a precinct or compound of unknown extent. If the building complex had wings, they must have been outside the scheduled area, but it is also possible that the ‘villa’ was actually aligned the other way around, so that any wings and courtyard associated with the mosaic building could have been located to the NE rather than the SW.

The evaluation led to a season of research excavation at the site, as well as new geophysical surveys that are designed to answer some of the many questions that remain about the history of the mosaic, the buildings to which it belonged, and the people who lived with it.

The evaluation excavation was a collaborative research and training project led by Dr Peter Guest (Vianova Archaeology & Heritage Services), Dr Richard Hobbs (The British Museum) and Mike Luke (Albion Archaeology). 15 undergraduate archaeologists from Cardiff University joined the excavation, as well as a number of volunteers. We are very grateful to the residents of Hinton St Mary for their interest and support during the 2021 season. The project’s formal Assessment Report is available to download here.