Horkstow was a Romano-British villa on the western escarpment above the Ancholme valley in North Lincolnshire, occupied in the later Roman period and best known for an exceptionally fine polychrome mosaic floor uncovered in 1797. Its principal phase of embellishment dates to the 4th century AD, when it formed part of a notable cluster of high-status villas in this part of Lindsey (alongside Winterton, Roxby, and Winteringham).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site is significant for the quality of its figurative mosaics, which have been attributed to the so-called 'Corinian Saltire' or Durobrivan school of mosaicists also active at Brading and Cirencester, indicating that elite landowners in the lower Humber region commissioned work from craftsmen of pan-provincial reputation. It points to a prosperous late Roman agricultural economy on the fertile lands above the Ancholme.
The 1797 discovery revealed mosaics depicting a chariot race (with named charioteers and an upset team), scenes of Orpheus charming the beasts, and mythological roundels including Triton and marine figures; sections were lifted and are now held at the British Museum and Hull. Beyond the mosaic-bearing range, the full plan and outbuildings of the villa have not been comprehensively excavated, though geophysical and limited fieldwork in the surrounding fields have indicated further structural remains and enclosures.
Horkstow was a Romano-British villa on the western escarpment above the Ancholme valley in North Lincolnshire, occupied in the later Roman period and best known for an exceptionally fine polychrome mosaic floor uncovered in 1797. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Horkstow 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 Old Winteringham (4.6 km), Roman site 400yds (370m) NE of Worlaby Church (5.7 km), *Petuaria (6.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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