Lullingstone Roman Villa

Infobox Historic building

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caption =The enclosed interior of Lullingstone Villa
name =Lullingstone Roman Villa
location_town =Lullingstone
location_country =England, United Kingdom
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Lullingstone Roman Villa is a villa built under Roman rule, situated near the village of Eynsford in northwest Kent, south eastern England.

Lullingstone Roman Villa is particularly notable for being the site of one of the earliest known Christian chapels in the country.

Other villa sites exist nearby at Crofton, Crayford and Dartford.

History

Construction and Use

The earliest stage was built around 80 AD and it lasted until the 5th century (420AD). Around AD 150 some important officials seem to have lived here, indicated by two marbles busts dating to about that period and perhaps showing the owners of the villa. A heated bath block was added and in the Fouth Century the dining room was equipped with a fine mosaic floor with one illustration of Zeus, disguised as a bull, abducting Europa and a second depicting Bellerophon killing the Chimera. [ [http://www.asprom.org/resources/Lullingstone/LullingstoneHenig.html Article on the Lullingstone mosaics] ] Finds include two Greco-Roman marble heads, now in the British Museum, portraying either the villa owners, their ancestors, or the then Roman Emperor Pertinax and his father. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,61-2292526.html Times article, 30th July 2006] ]

Graves

A Romano-Celtic temple-mausoleum complex was constructed around 300 AD to hold the bodies of two young people. Although one of the lead coffins was robbed in antiquity, one still remained in situ with grave-goods, undisturbed when excavated.

Christian chapel

In the 4th century a group of rooms of the main building were apparently converted to Christian use, with painted plaster on the walls, including a row of figures of standing worshipers, (orans), and a characteristic Christian Chi-rho symbol. Some of the paintings are now on display in the British Museum. [ [http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/p/a_roman_villa_wall_painting.aspx Murals from Lullingstone and other related artifacts on the British Museum website] ] Sometime early in the 5th century a fire destroyed the building, and the building was abandoned and forgotten until its rediscovery in the 20th Century. [Meates, Lt. Col. G.W. "Lullingstone Roman Villa". p.33. London. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1984. 0-11-670035-1]

Excavation

It was discovered in 1939 (a blown-down tree revealed scattered mosaic fragments) and the villa was excavated in the period 194–61 - the ruins themselves were preserved under a specially-built building in the 1960s, but this began to leak late in the 20th century and required a major £1.8m renovation and redisplay project in 2006-08 to make it safe to display fragile objects from the site in it. [Cite news|first=Maev|last=Kennedy|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/24/heritage.museums|title=New light thrown on Roman villa remains|date=24 July 2008|accessdate=2008-07-24]

References

External links

* [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.195 English Heritage site]

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