All of our lectures are live streamed and are open to anyone to join us online, Fellows and Non-Fellows.
To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
Landscape of Curiosities: The Priors Hall Roman Villa Estate
by Paddy Lambert
The site at Priors Hall, Corby represents an extremely important discovery from the world of Roman Britain. Investigated between 2019 and 2021, the breathtakingly well-preserved remains investigated included a large and complex manufacturing zone associated with a Late Romano- British villa, the site of which was discovered in 2011 and has been left preserved in-situ.
Activity was centered around brick, tile manufacture and pottery manufacture on a large scale. The principle tileries and subsidiary structures were constructed within the shell of an earlier stone structure, and this is interpreted as being an early Roman mausoleum, associated with the first phases of the villa and its inhabitants. This is the only likely example of this type of repurposing known from Roman Britain and prompts exploration of the reasons behind this radical change of function. It foregrounds the human in what is often seen as a record of past events through the dispassionate lens of site phases. The results of this excavation won the Current Archaeology Award 2021 for ‘Rescue Project of the Year’.
Further excavations in 2021 around the villa estate uncovered evidence for the early second century villa. These included the progenitor Iron Age settlement, two well-preserved Roman roads, pottery manufacture and more. The lecture will consider the significance of the results of these excavations for understanding the wider histories and social and economic networks of Romano-British villas in a core villa region, illuminated by the larger dataset from development-led excavation. The abundance of evidence for manufacture enable us to focus on the more rarely told stories of Romano-British villas, from the perspective of the people who lived their lives in their shadow, the tilers, carpenters, potters, and tradespeople.
This event will be both in person at Burlington House and online. Please select the appropriate ticket below.
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
