Rustic villa (Bramdean)

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The villa rustica of Bramdean is a Roman farm (Villa rustica) located about 15 kilometers east of Venta Belgarum, today's Winchester. Bramdean in the English county of Hampshire is the closest place today.

The villa was discovered by shepherds who dug a pillar hole. It was excavated in 1823 by William Greenwood. In 1828 John Lickman drew up a plan. His plan shows two buildings. Further short investigations took place shortly before 1972. The actual villa was in the north and it was a building with portico in the south and two corner risades. Another building lay in the west, which was a three-aisled house with a bath, probably later, installed. The villa was probably already built around 100 AD, but it was only built around 300 AD. The coins found here, however, all date to the fourth century AD, the last coins date from the time of Constantine II (317-340 AD).

The most important finds in the villa were two well-preserved mosaics. In the main house of the dwelling was a mosaic about 6.15 x 4.92 meters in size, which in the center was the head of the Medusa. For this reason, busts were shown, which symbolize the weekday. Sol, for Sunday, Luna for Monday, Mars for Tuesday, Mercury for Wednesday, Jupiter for Thursday and Venus for Friday. The last two busts were no longer preserved during the discovery. Here you can expect Saturn for Saturday. The eighth figure remains speculation. A second mosaic from the mansion showed two wrestlers in the middle, and arranged four busts, the identification of which is controversial. After the discovery, William Greenwood built a building over the remains of the villa to protect above all the mosaics. In 1873, attempts were made to recover the mosaics to bring them to Winchester, since the protective building was used as a stable in the meantime. However, the soils were not well preserved and were practically destroyed in this action. Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext

51.049144-1.106115Koordinaten: 51° 2′ 57″ N, 1° 6′ 22″ W

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