Rural Villa in Eccles
Province
Province Description
Location
Garden
Rural Villa in Eccles
Keywords
Garden Description
This country estate in modern Kent possessed a large ornamental pool (P in Fig. 1) in the area in front of the main residence (A in Fig. 1) and to the east of the attached bath house (Fig. 1). The masonry pool measuring 25 x 3.50 meters lay parallel to the house frontage. From the pool ran a masonry drain. Although no traces of bedding trenches or plantings have been detected in the yard around the pool, it might be assumed that the pool was a centerpiece of a garden (G in Fig. 1). Interestingly, in the backfill of a ditch under the southeast wing of the villa at least thirty planting pots were retrieved in excavations. The vessels had three knife-cut triangular holes in the lower body and a round hole through the base (Fig. 2, nest page). The pots were misfired and almost certainly manufactured in kilns near the villa in the decade after A.D. 50. Although the planting pots were not found in context in pits within a garden, it is clear that they were being produced locally for use at Eccles or other gardens nearby. Excavations have established that the estate was continually occupied from the middle of the 1st century until the 4th century. In its final 4th century form, the villa complex measured 89 x 116 meters, including its wings and the courtyard.
Plans
Fig. 1: Plan of the villa with the main house (A), a possible garden (G) and a large pool (P). Adapted from Detsicas 1983, fig. 25.
Images
Fig. 2: Clay planting pot with cut-out holes. Adapted from Detsicas 1981, fig. 26.2.
Dates
mid-1st to 4th century CE
Bibliography
- A. Detsicas, The Cantiaci, Gloucester, 1983, pp. 103-107, fig. 20. (worldcat)
- R.J. Zeepvat, “Fishponds in Roman Britain,” in: M. Aston, ed., Medieval Fish, Fisheries and Fishponds in England. British Archaeological Reports, Brit. Ser. 182, Oxford, 1988, p. 18, fig. 2. (worldcat)
- A. Detsicas, “A group of pottery from Eccles, Kent,” in Roman Pottery Research in Britain and Northwest Europe, British Archaeological Reports, Int. Ser. 123, Oxford, 1981, pp. 441-445.
Pleiades ID
TGN ID
Contributor
Maureen Carroll (ORCID: 0000-0001-9958-8032)
Publication date
21 Apr 2021