1/10 Discovery! Abermagwr Roman villa, Ceredigion. Ten years ago this month, initial excavations directed by Dr Jeffrey Davies and Dr Toby Driver confirmed the existence of Ceredigion’s first (and still only) recorded Roman villa, and the most remote villa in Wales. 
2/10 Roman villas are not common in Wales; fewer than 40 known or possible villas are recorded, and these are mostly in the south and east of the country. Abermagwr Villa was discovered as a striking cropmark during aerial photography in the exceptional drought of 2006.
3/10 In 2010 funding was obtained for an exploratory excavation in 2010 by Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, with loans of equipment from the Dyfed Archaeological Trust. This confirmed what was – and remains – the only recorded Roman villa in Ceredigion (Cardiganshire).
4/10 Excavations continued at the villa in 2011 & 15 as a lively community dig assisted by a local volunteer workforce, without whom there would have been no excavation. We welcomed over 300 visitors to an open day in 2011 and visited several local primary schools to show finds.
5/10 Although the villa was a comparatively modest late third- to early fourth-century AD house, it nonetheless preserved a range of evidence not found elsewhere. Its discovery changed our view of late Roman mid- and west Wales, hitherto thought to have been a ‘militarised zone’.
6/10 The villa was occupied until around AD 330 when it was abandoned following a catastrophic fire. A cooking pot dropped on the kitchen floor which was never picked up showed the urgency of the evacuation. The heavy slate roof and oak beams collapsed, burning, onto the floor.
7/10 The star find was fragments of an extraordinary late Roman cut-glass vessel– very likely a small bowl – which originated from the Rhineland in Germany. The vessel had been dropped in the small rear room of the villa and never picked up, possibly during the fire.
8/10 Ceredigion’s earliest slated roof: The slate roof of the villa has also been subjected to one of the most thorough modern studies of the Roman slater’s craft, guided by historic slate specialist Bill Jones.
9/10 The finished roof of pentagonal pointed slates would have been highly decorative. Bill Jones estimates approximately 6,600 slates were required for the roof of the main villa block, and around 2,475 slates for the separate smaller roofs of the wings!
10/10 All the finds from the villa have been deposited in Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth, with the best finds on display. ceredigionmuseum.wales
The full archive resides with the National Monuments Record of Wales, Aberystwyth. @RC_Archive
coflein.gov.uk/en/site/405315…
The full archive resides with the National Monuments Record of Wales, Aberystwyth. @RC_Archive
coflein.gov.uk/en/site/405315…
