Low Ham: a Roman Villa and its Environs

Research leading to greater protection

The project is casting new light on a site first discovered by farmer Herbert Cook in 1938, then investigated by Lionel Walrond, Steven Dewar and C. A. Ralegh Radford in the 1940s. The site is currently threatened by animal burrowing. Through increased knowledge of the depth and character of the archaeological evidence, the buried remains can be afforded better management and protection.

Geophysical survey

As a first stage of the investigation, the HE Geophysical Survey team carried out caesium magnetometer and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys. The vehicle-towed caesium magnetometer survey (12.4 hectares) revealed extensive ranges of buildings arranged around a central courtyard and contained within a sub-rectangular enclosure defined by double ditches with a north-east facing access corridor, surrounded by a wider system of associated trackways and enclosures. The GPR coverage (6.9 hectares) targeted the villa buildings.

Excavation

Three excavation trenches were opened to sample the geophysical results. One targeted a possible ladder settlement north of the villa, revealing a succession of enclosure ditches, a large flue, perhaps from a corn drier, and an area of rubble with little underlying structural evidence. The flue incorporated worked stone which may be derived from the main villa.

Another trench targeted a quadrant of a large rectilinear enclosure south of the villa that lay alongside a trackway. Excavation revealed that the enclosure succeeded at least two roundhouses of different construction styles, with another roundhouse not stratigraphically related. Further post-built structures were also present. The enclosure ditch proved to be large, deep and repeatedly recut, and elaborated to the exterior with additional boundary features including a small v-shaped ditch and postholes, possibly cut through a bank. Both Iron Age and Roman pottery were found in this part of the site. There are hints of a rectilinear wooden structure in the centre of the enclosure.

The final trench evaluated the villa buildings in the newly discovered south-east wing, located beyond the scheduled area. This revealed a complex sequence of late Roman industrial activity and structural redevelopment of the villa buildings. Quantities of industrial debris were found, particularly in association with a hearth and pits, alongside disturbed tesserae and pottery, iron and animal bone. The structural sequence provides the first evidence of the chronology and development of this wing of the villa, and the only modern excavation of the site.

Publication

Historic England's research into Low Ham has now been published as part of an integrated report taking in the findings of the earlier 1940's excavations as well as landscape and aerial research undertaken by Professor Roger Leech in the 1970s. The resulting volume is available to all through a free to access downloadable monograph.

A hard copy version can be purchased from Pen and Sword books.

Publication is thanks to a generous grant from Historic England supported by smaller sums from the Pilgrim Trust, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society’s Maltwood Fund, the Association for Roman Archaeology, the Roman Research Trust, and the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics.

 The new research demonstrates the development of Low Ham from an unenclosed Middle to Late Iron Age settlement, through early Roman enclosure, to the establishment and development of one of the most elaborate and extensive 4th-century AD villas in Britannia.

 The newly discovered prehistoric precursor to the villa, an unenclosed farming settlement, demonstrated very early Roman activity including a massive rectangular enclosure ditch cutting through roundhouses that had likely already been abandoned. The villa gradually developed from the 3rd century until at its mid-4th century height, it had an internal floor space of 5,000 square metres. across about 80 rooms. Drawing together material narratives of lives at the villa, from the finds and environmental evidence discovered in both excavation campaigns, brings the place to life.

Low Ham is the largest and most elaborate of the dense concentration of villas around the Roman town of Ilchester, a key node in Roman transport. Consideration of the landscape context, and review of settlement in the region, suggests that we need to diversify our interpretations of villas, and argues for the importance of state supply networks, hunting and elite interaction in site location choice. Placing the site in its broader landscape in historical context in this way offers a significant contribution to the study of Roman Britain.