Brading Roman Villa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Brading Roman Villa |
|
|---|---|
Site museum housing the mosaics and walls
|
|
| General information | |
| Location | Brading |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 50°40′22″N 1°09′16″W / 50.6728°N 1.1544°W |
| Construction started | 1st century |
| Demolished | 4th century |
Brading Roman Villa is an amazing old Roman house that has been dug up and put on show for everyone to see. It's located in Brading on the Isle of Wight, a beautiful island off the south coast of England. This large country home, known as a Roman courtyard villa, gives us a peek into what life was like almost 2,000 years ago!
Contents
Discovering the Villa
In 1879, a farmer named Mr. Munns was busy making a pen for his sheep. Suddenly, his tools hit something hard underground. It turned out to be a beautiful mosaic floor! Captain Thorp, who was interested in Roman history, helped Mr. Munns dig up more of the site.
By the next year, half of the villa on Mr. Munns' land had been uncovered. The other half was on a nearby estate owned by Lady Louisa Oglander. She bought Mr. Munns' part so that the whole villa could be dug up and explored.
For many years, the Oglander family allowed people to visit the site. Then, in 1994, a charity took over. They made the site even better with a new visitor center, an exhibition area, a shop, and a cafe. In 2004, the building covering the villa was replaced, and the visitor facilities were improved again. There's even a small grassy amphitheater nearby, made from the soil dug up during the building work.
In 2008, the University of Oxford started new excavations. They hoped to find even more amazing mosaics and learn more about the villa.
History of Brading Roman Villa
The Isle of Wight was taken over by the Roman army, led by Vespasian, around 44 CE. The first simple house at Brading was built in the mid-1st century. Over the next 100 years, it grew into a very large and impressive stone villa. It had many luxurious rooms, some with beautiful Roman mosaics.
Sadly, a big fire damaged the villa in the 3rd century AD. But even after the fire, the villa was still used for farming for another 100 years. Around AD 340, the people living at Brading Villa faced problems from pirates raiding the coast. However, Roman coins found at the site show that people lived there until at least AD 395.
Eventually, the villa was used to store grain. It slowly fell apart in the 5th century. Over time, plants grew over the ruins, and people forgot where the villa was. It remained hidden until Mr. Munns' discovery!
Exploring the Villa's Rooms
Today, the remains of the villa are protected inside a special Exhibition and Visitor Centre. We can see 12 rooms from the ground floor. We don't know exactly what every room was used for. The biggest room, with its stunning mosaic floor, was probably used for special parties and entertaining guests. There's no sign of a kitchen inside, so food might have been cooked outside to prevent fires.
Things found in the house, like fancy pottery, jewelry, and games, show that the people who lived here had a very comfortable life.
There are mosaics in five of the main villa rooms. These mosaics show different pictures, which tells us the owners were rich and well-educated. Besides cool geometric patterns, there's a mosaic about Orpheus, a famous musician from Greek myths. Another mosaic shows Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, along with gladiators, a strange cockerel-headed man, and a dome-shaped building. The largest mosaic is in two parts. It shows Roman gods and goddesses, Medusa, and scenes of farming and the sea.
The Mysterious Cockerel-Headed Man
One of the most unique parts of the mosaics is the cockerel-headed man. This mosaic shows him next to a building with steps, and two griffins nearby.
Some people think he might be a god called Abraxas. But Abraxas usually has a snake's tail too, which this figure doesn't. Another idea is that the figure is making fun of a gladiator named "Gallus." "Gallus" means "cockerel" in Latin! Some even suggest it's a joke about a Roman emperor named Constantius Gallus.
Mosaics at Brading Villa are very similar to others found in a city called Antioch. This has led some to guess that a person named Palladius, who was banished to Britain, created them. He might have drawn the cockerel-headed man to make fun of someone who had caused him trouble. A simpler idea is that it's just a fantastical animal, like the dog-headed figures seen in other ancient art.
Other Buildings at the Site
On the north side of the main villa, you can see the remains of a farmhouse. This was probably where the workers lived. It even had a hypocaust, which was an ancient Roman system for underfloor heating! There was also a well nearby.
On the south side of the villa, there were farm buildings like a granary (for storing grain) and other storerooms. These buildings don't survive today.
While there's no evidence of a fancy Roman garden at the villa itself, a water feature called a nymphaeum was found outside. It's now on display in the Exhibition Centre. Today, a reconstructed Roman garden has been planted on the grounds. It has many plants, herbs, and flowers that would have grown in Roman times, giving visitors a taste of what the villa's surroundings might have looked like.
