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Homeowner Discovers 1,400-year-old Roman Villa After Digging Up His Garden

Homeowner Discovers 1,400-year-old Roman Villa After Digging Up His Garden

Some find.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan

I'd like to imagine that if I made the effort to dig up my garden I'd find some kind of cave, filled with trapped Pokemon.

I'd nurture the creatures back to good health, train them and take the world by storm from my secret, underground Pokemon basement.

When Luke Irwin dug up his garden he didn't have a hoard of Pokemon, but he did find a 1,400-year-old Roman villa.

Luke was laying electric cables in his garden in Wiltshere when he unearthed a Roman mosaic which had been really well preserved.

He called in archaeological experts and after some more digging and research they found that it was one of the largest villas in Britain. Certainly bigger than Aston Villa, anyway.

They managed to find things like coins, brooches, bones of animals, wild animals which had been hunted and put on display, a Roman well, and a Roman child's coffin.


"I was overwhelmed by the realisation that someone's lived on this site for 2,000 years. You look out at an empty field from your front door, and yet 1,500 years ago there was the biggest house, possibly, in all of Britain," Luke said.

The discovery actually means big things for potential research purposes.

"This site has not been touched since its collapse 1,400 years ago and, as such, is of enormous importance. Without question, this is a hugely valuable site in terms of research, with incredible potential. The discovery of such an elaborate and extraordinarily well-preserved villa, undamaged by agriculture for over 1,500 years, is unparalleled in recent years," Dr David Roberts, Historic England archaeologist, said.

All image credits: PA

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Topics: man, Interesting, History, Garden