18 Thursday November 25 2021 | the times
News
Archaeologists have hailed the “most
exciting discovery” of a Roman mosaic
in Britain for a century after a farmer’s
son unearthed a depiction of two
ancient heroes in a battle to the death.
While the story of Achilles’ triumph
over Hector is set in Troy on the shores
of the Aegean, the freshly excavated
mosaic was found beneath a wheat field
in Rutland in the East Midlands.
The 11-by-7-metre mosaic is part of a
previously unknown villa complex
belonging to a wealthy family in
Roman Britain between the 3rd and 4th
ed his local council, which referred the
find to archaeologists. John Thomas,
deputy director of the University of
Leicester Archaeological Services, said
it was the most revealing discovery of a
mosaic for 100 years.
“It gives us fresh perspectives on the
attitudes of people at the time, their
links to classical literature, and it also
tells us an enormous amount about the
individual who commissioned this
piece,” he said. “This is someone with aknowledge of the classics, who had the
money to commission a piece of such
detail, and it’s the very first depiction of
these stories that we’ve ever found in
Britain.
“Previous excavations on Roman
villas have only been able to capture
partial pictures of settlements like
these, but this appears to be a very well-
preserved example of a villa in its en-
tirety.” Archaeologists have placed
earth back over the mosaic, which is onFarmer’s son stumbles on Roman
mosaic in ‘discovery of a century’
Jack Malvern centuries AD. It is the only known
mosaic of the Iliad in Britain and one of
a handful in Europe.
The remains of the building were
discovered by chance by the son of the
landowner during a country walk with
his family in August last year.
Jim Irvine, whose father Brian Nay-
lor owns the field, said that he became
increasingly excited as he realised what
he had found. “A ramble through the
fields with the family turned into an
incredible discovery,” he said. “Finding
some unusual pottery amongst the
wheat piqued my interest and prompt-
ed some further investigative work.”
He went online to find a satellite
photograph of the field and saw a “very
clear crop mark”, where wheat growth
was disturbed by remains of buildings
beneath the soil. It was “as if someone
had drawn on my computer screen with
a piece of chalk. This really was the ‘oh
wow’ moment,” he said. Irvine contact-Jim Irvine was
walking through
his father’s field
when he found
“unusual pottery”
among the wheatUnusually, they are
shown fighting from their
chariots. They are more
commonly depicted
fighting hand-to-handAchilles, shown on the
left, had given his armour
to Patroclus, who was
then killed by Hector in
the belief he was AchillesAchilles’s horses, Balius
and Xanthus, are shown
in different coloursThe full mosaic includes
this best-preserved
section, showing Achilles
fighting Hector to the
death outside Troy, as
told by Homer in the Iliad