Recent Fieldwork - Warblington 2014

In September 2014 Chichester and District Archaeology Society (CDAS) conducted a two week excavation on the site of the Warblington Roman villa complex, which is located within the Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This excavation is the fourth in a series that started in 2010. For the last three years these excavations have been directed by James Kenny, Chichester District Council Archaeologist, acting in a private capacity as a member of the society.

This year the focus was on a rectangular structure located to the south of the courtyard in front of the villa. Like the other parts of the site we have excavated, this structure has suffered heavy plough damage. Nevertheless, there is evidence that it was constructed to a higher specification than we have so far seen on this site:

• Carefully laid flint walls up to 1 metre thick.
• Long flints laid at right angles to the wall’s axis to ensure maximum strength.
• Some faced flints
• Square Roman bricks (bessales), either as floor covering or as hypocaust pilae.
• Parts of both clay and stone roof tiles with holes for the fixing nails.
• A voussoir flue tile, suggesting that the structure had a barrel vaulted ceiling.

The pottery and bone objects found during the dig have been sent to specialists for a post excavation report.

3D model of the completed trench:

Press the 'play' symbol, then when the model has loaded left mouse click and hold to rotate, right mouse click and hold to pan, mouse scroll wheel (or hold Ctrl + drag) to zoom. Click on any numbered annotations for more information.

  

  

  

This excavation, like others in previous years has been generously supported by the Chichester Harbour Conservancy Sustainable Development Fund.