Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2010 | Page 62

feature

Island Life - October/November 2010

Exciting new finds
at Roman Villa
This year's extraordinary phase
of Brading Roman Villa's Big
Dig programme has reached its
conclusion.
Photo: Right - Sir Barry Cunliffe CBE. Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology,
Oxford University. Below: Sir Barry Cunliffe directing a volunteer.

There were some perhaps who didn't

the amazing haul of artefacts

expect too much from this year's

unearthed over the three

excavation of the site beyond the car

weeks during August including

park at Brading Roman Villa. There

amphorae, coins, a pair of

were no remains of long-buried stone

bronze age tweezers, and

family cemetery. “It might well be

buildings to reveal. Well, the doubters

a beautiful first century AD enamel

that Grandad was buried there, then

were way off the mark.

brooch.

Grandma and so on, a succession of

The revelations of life at Brading on

The farmstead, it seems, may well date

cremations over the years.”

this initial area of farmstead settlement,

back to an earlier period of the Iron

before and after the Romans came,

Age than first thought. The evidence

were in pots. It's possible that the

have been richly rewarding as have

is a saucepan. ”It's what we call a

remaining cremation, which had

All but one of the five cremations

saucepan-pot, and we've

apparently simply been put in a small

found a substantial piece of

hole, might originally have been

it,” said Sir Barry Cunliffe.

placed in a bag, or something of the

“It's like a big cup with

sort, which had disintegrated. One

straight sides, very distinctive

man-made thing had survived with this

of pottery that is middle

cremation, though. “It's a little bronze

Iron Age. This is the earliest

nail or tack, but I've no idea why it

evidence of occupation on

was there” said Sir Barry. “It's all about

the farmstead.” Sir Barry

activity and belief, and it does, I think,

added: “The discovery of this

bring you slightly closer to the people.”

pot shoves the history of the

First thought to date from the 1st

site back another 200 years

century AD, Sir Barry now thinks the

and it actually came up while

cremations might be 2nd century,

some visitors were looking

possibly later. If that's the case, the

on just over the fence!”

cremation pyre might have been in

Arguably the most striking

is distinct evidence of burning - and

Roman cremations. “They're

from where 2nd century pottery has

roughly in line and more or

been retrieved. ’We can't be absolutely

less evenly spaced,” Sir Barry

sure about this,’ he added, “but it is a

reported, adding that this

logical conclusion. It works very well as

arrangement was probably

an explanation.”

indicative of an extended
62

a corner of the dig site where there

discovery this year was five

Were the cremations marked by the
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