More information : [TQ 39307741] ROMAN VILLA [GS] (Site of) (1)
Site about 100 yds from E. wall of Greenwich Park, discovered
1902 & examined by "Mr Herbert Jones & others". "Of actual
buildings little seems to be left. The excavators succeeded only in finding a small piece of plain walling in Kentish rag & three
patches of flooring, one of coarse red tesserae, the rest of opus
signinum scattered over an area about 15' x 50'. The tessellated floor was about 3' higher than the others & was thought,
therefore, to belong to a later period, while the occurrence of burnt matter suggested that one of the periods ended by fire.....
The debris & smaller remains were far more important. These comprised...roof & other tiles, hypocaust pilae, wall plaster
painted (it is said) in as many as 12 patterns, tesserae both
rough red cubes of brick & finer specimens in other colours,
a piece of green porphyry which may have belonged to a marble wall-lining, nails with burnt wood attached, worked & moulded blocks of oolite, parts of the drums of 3 diminutive columns,
& some window glass. These structural remains were accompanied by numerous smaller movable objects. Several pieces of inscribed & sculptured stone...".
(i) Sandstone fragment 6 1/2" long x 8" tall, with ends of two
first lines of an inscr: ....CVLAP [or CVLAR]....IATVS -?AESCULAPIO?
(ii) White marble fragment 4 1/2" wide x 6" high with left side
of a longish inscription:
NV....
CV....
MO....
SI....-? NVMINIBVS AVG?
(iii) White marble, like (ii) with tops of letters, possibly
ASS
(iv-vi) Three fragments with parts of letters.
(vii) Part of a figure 2/3 life size, in oolite, probably female,
right arm bent, with armlet & drapery.
Also Samian, Upchurch, Castor, Coloque & other pottery, "a puzzling little terra-cotta head of a lion with a nail through the
open mouth", bronze fibulae, nail-cleaners, hinges: iron nails,'
Key, Knife, rings, hooks & c: "bone pins & a carved piece showing a woman holding a shield above her head": bottle glass: oyster shells & animal bones incl "(it is said), camels" & about 300
coins Claudius to Honorius - & a XIV legionary denarius of
Mark Antony found 100 yds NE.
"A few yards to the SE, & near the Vanbrugh Gate, there survives the corner of a perhaps rectangular earthwork enclosed by mound & ditch. This was excavated in 1906 & Roman tiles & coarse pottery were found within its enclosure & in its mound & ditch, though not outside its boundaries........
"The inscriptions, one possibly mentioning Aesculapius, the
fragment of a statue, the bit (as it seems) of marble wall-lining
& the list of coins ranging through all four centuries suggest,
not so much a dwelling-house as a shrine... It is, however,
possible that the remains belong to a country house, & it would be rash to insist imperatively on the scanty items just cited... The earthwork, if Roman, as seems probable, may belong to a temple enclosure or a villa garden." (2)
[ ] As above. Walls, floors centred at site indicated
on sketch map. (3)
Roman site in Greenwich Park: Coins found now in Greenwich Borough Museum. Inscribed stones etc. in British Museum. (4)
The 1902 excavations located three separate floors, building debris, c.400 coins and fragments of inscriptions and statuary. There is conflicting interpretations from both the excavators with Webster suggested two buildings, the earlier one destroyed by fire. The most plausible interpretation is that of a temple. Roman finds have been located within this vicinity of the park (see NAR TQ 37 NE 41, TQ 37 NE 42). The 1978-9 excavations located the remains of the earlier building, constructed c.100AD. It is rectangular in plan with flint footings and a clay and timber superstructure and a possible forecourt to the south. No evidence was recorded of its destruction by fire. The later building was constructed immediately after the destruction of the first. It was of a similar plan but more substantially built, had painted wall plaster and a plain red tessellated floor. The evidence points to the presence of a temple, square in plan, with an ambulatory and cella. The floors located in the earlier excavations may have belonged to an annexe east of the main structure (5)
Two ivories recovered from the 1902 excavations are rare examples and represent produced-to-order imports from the continent. The scabbard chape (British Museum Acc. no. 1906 2-12 9,10,11) is 2-3rd century in date. The plaque, probably derived from the fulcrum of a couch, has a depiction of a meanad and is 1st century in date (B.M Acc. no. 1906 2-12, 12). (6)
Recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-1993 to Feb-1994:
Gradiometer and resistance surveys of the temple site and its surroundings, conducted on behalf of RCHME, failed to produce any additional evidence for the nature and extent of the structure. The only features which could be considered to represent archaeological remains were located 20m east of the temple mound.` Three parallel intermittent ditch type anomalies' may represent ridge and furrow cultivation or more recent drainage channels, but the quality of the magnetic data did not support a definite interpretation.
The site of the building is located between Lovers' Walk and Maze hill, on high ground east of the Greenwich escarpment. It is marked by a subcircular, flat-topped mound roughly 23m in diameter and up to 1.2m high. The mound is steep-sided on the west, declining in height towards the south. A slight concentric scarp on the mound may be the remains of a building platform, some 12m across and 0.4m high.
The mound is now bordered on the east by the modern path between Lovers' Walk and Maze Hill Gate. To the north, it drops sharply into a hollow way (see NMR No. TQ 37 NE 108), a fall of 1.9m. The side of the mound appears to have been modelled to sharpen the profile. To the south and west, the mound falls gently to a level area where there are a series of large tree extraction holes, probably some from a circle of elms planted here 1661-2. The present sharp profile of the northern and western sides of the mound may be the result of landscaping works associated with these trees (7).
A fully referenced description is contained in the archive.
Survey plan at 1:1000 scale archived with record TQ 37 NE 69 (UID 610590) (7).
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