The Downton villa lies on the gravel terrace of the River Avon just south of Salisbury, Wiltshire, and was excavated by Philip Rahtz in 1955–57. It was a modest winged-corridor house of the later Roman period, occupied principally in the 4th century AD, though the site shows some earlier 2nd–3rd century activity preceding the masonry phase.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Downton is one of a dense cluster of small to middling villas in the Avon valley around Salisbury (including Netheravon, Pitmead and Stratford-sub-Castle), reflecting the prosperous agrarian hinterland of late Roman central Wessex, possibly oriented towards the small town and route node at Old Sarum (Sorviodunum).
Rahtz's excavation revealed a rectangular masonry building with projecting wings, simple tessellated and mortar floors, painted wall plaster, and a small bath suite, but no elaborate mosaics — placing it among the lesser, working villas of the region. Finds included 4th-century coinage, pottery and ironwork consistent with continued occupation into the late 4th century, with no clear evidence of post-Roman use.
The Downton villa lies on the gravel terrace of the River Avon just south of Salisbury, Wiltshire, and was excavated by Philip Rahtz in 1955–57. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Downton is classified as a Roman villa — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including The Moot: a ringwork and bailey, earlier Roman settlement remains and later garden earthworks immediately east of the River Avon (0.2 km), Roman pottery kilns at Island Thorns Enclosure (7.2 km), Rockbourne (7.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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