Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
A long time ago, the Romans built houses in England. Some of those houses had beautiful floors made of small colored tiles.
Scientists were digging in a farmer's field in Devon, England. They found one of these old floors.
The floor is called a mosaic. It is made of thousands of small red, white, and dark blue-gray pieces.
This is the most western mosaic like this ever found in a Roman house in Britain.
- Roman
- relating to ancient Rome and its empire
- floor
- the flat surface people walk on inside a building
- tile
- a small flat piece used to cover a floor or wall
- dig
- to remove earth to find or study something buried
- mosaic
- a picture or pattern made from many small colored pieces
- field
- a piece of open land, often used for farming
- western
- located toward the west
- farmer
- a person who grows crops or raises animals on land
Level 2 — Elementary
Archaeologists from the University of Exeter and Cotswold Archaeology have uncovered a rare Roman mosaic beneath farmland near the villages of Halberton and Sampford Peverell in Devon, England.
The mosaic covers about 12 square meters and is made from thousands of small red, white, and dark blue-gray tiles called tesserae, likely laid down in the 4th century AD.
This polychrome, or multi-colored, mosaic is the westernmost example ever found inside a villa in Roman Britain, making it an unusually opulent discovery for this part of the country.
Alongside the mosaic, the two-month excavation also uncovered an elaborate bathhouse with at least two plunge pools and painted plaster walls, plus artifacts like a carved gem showing the goddess Victory.
- archaeologist
- a scientist who studies the objects left behind by past human societies
- villa
- a large country house, especially one from Roman times
- tesserae
- the small individual pieces used to make a mosaic
- polychrome
- having or made of many colors
- opulent
- showing great wealth and luxury
- excavation
- the careful digging up of a site to find historical objects
- bathhouse
- a building containing baths, especially in ancient times
- carved
- cut or shaped into a design, often in stone or gem
Level 3 — Intermediate
A two-month excavation led by the University of Exeter and Cotswold Archaeology, part of the SHARE (Saving Halberton's Ancient Roman Environment) project, has uncovered a rare polychrome mosaic beneath farmland between the villages of Halberton and Sampford Peverell in Devon, England.
The mosaic, roughly 12 square meters in area and composed of thousands of red, white, and dark blue-gray tesserae, was likely installed sometime in the 4th century AD and represents the westernmost example of such opulent flooring yet documented in a villa in Roman Britain.
Such lavish decoration is rare in this part of southwestern Britain, where only a handful of Roman villas are known, making the find significant evidence of considerable wealth and Roman cultural influence reaching further west than previously well documented.
Beyond the mosaic itself, archaeologists also uncovered an elaborate bathhouse featuring at least two plunge pools and painted plaster walls, along with artifacts including an intaglio, a gemstone carved with a design, depicting the goddess Victory, a glass ornament, a copper alloy bangle, and a silver-plated spoon.
- excavation
- a careful, systematic dig to uncover buried historical remains
- opulent
- extravagantly rich, luxurious, or lavish
- document
- to record something as evidence, or the act of recording it
- lavish
- very generous, rich, or elaborate
- significant
- important enough to be worthy of attention
- intaglio
- a design carved or engraved into a hard material, such as a gemstone
- artifact
- an object made or used by humans, especially one of historical interest
- influence
- the power to affect or shape something, such as culture
Level 4 — Advanced
A two-month excavation conducted by the University of Exeter and Cotswold Archaeology, undertaken as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported SHARE (Saving Halberton's Ancient Roman Environment) project, has brought to light a rare polychrome mosaic beneath farmland situated between the Devon villages of Halberton and Sampford Peverell, a find that revises assumptions about the westward reach of Roman material culture in Britain.
Comprising roughly 12 square meters of intricately arranged red, white, and dark blue-gray tesserae and dated on stylistic grounds to the 4th century AD, the mosaic constitutes the westernmost example of such elaborate villa flooring yet documented in Roman Britain, a distinction that carries weight precisely because so few villas of comparable opulence are known to have existed in this corner of the southwest.
The scarcity of comparable sites in the region lends the discovery an evidentiary significance beyond its aesthetic value, suggesting that whoever commissioned the villa possessed resources and cultural aspirations more typically associated with wealthier, better-documented villa estates further east, and prompting a reassessment of how deeply Romanized the rural southwest may have been by late antiquity.
The accompanying bathhouse, with its twin plunge pools and painted plaster walls, together with small finds such as an intaglio depicting the goddess Victory, a glass ornament, a copper alloy bangle, and a silver-plated spoon, corroborates that impression of considerable household wealth, offering archaeologists a rare, materially rich window into elite rural life at the empire's western periphery.
- revise
- to reconsider and alter in light of new evidence
- stylistic
- relating to the distinctive style or manner of something, such as art or architecture
- distinction
- a notable difference or a mark of honor
- evidentiary
- relating to or serving as evidence
- commission
- to formally arrange for something to be made or built
- Romanized
- having adopted Roman customs, culture, or ways of life
- corroborate
- to confirm or give support to a statement or finding
- periphery
- the outer edge or boundary of an area
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