SDO21120 - Archaeological Evaluation of the Roman 'Villa' at Hinton St Mary. Assessment Report

OASIS: ‘Six trenches excavated at Hinton St Mary to evaluate the condition of the archaeological remains of the late Roman ‘villa’ at Hinton St Mary. This was the first time since 1965 that invasive archaeological fieldwork has been undertaken at the site, when the famous mosaic was lifted. The evaluation trenches were located for two main reasons: 1. to establish the extent and condition of the underlying archaeological remains at Hinton St Mary; 2. to begin to answer some of the questions regarding the context of the famous mosaic and the building complex to which it belonged. The evaluation revealed that: the room containing the mosaic floor was part of a larger high-status masonry building in the north-eastern part of the scheduled area; the reconstruction of the plan of the villa based on the 1960s excavations is incorrect and needs to be reconsidered (it is no longer certain that the mosaic was part of a building we can safely call a ‘villa’); the buildings identified by previous geophysical surveys elsewhere in the scheduled area were Romano-British, but were more likely to have had agricultural functions; there is very little evidence for occupation at the site prior to 300; the site seems to have been occupied until the end of the fourth century or the early fifth century; Post-Roman activity in the trenches was limited to a substantial stone-built post-Medieval field drain, robbing of stone from Roman walls, and other relatively recent drainage features. The adjacent property, The Forge, was built at the end of the nineteenth century; in general, the Romano-British archaeological deposits survive well beneath the modern ground surface.’