Margam park Roman villa find could be ‘Port Talbot’s Pompeii’

Archaeologists have found the most important Roman villa ever present in Wales in an “superb discovery” which they are saying has the potential to be “Port Talbot’s Pompeii”.

“My eyes practically popped out of my cranium,” stated mission lead Dr Alex Langlands, after floor penetrating radar revealed the “large construction” in Margam Nation Park.

The situation, in a historic deer park, is important as a result of the land has not been ploughed or constructed on, that means the villa’s stays – lower than a metre beneath the floor – look to be properly preserved.

These concerned from Swansea College, Neath Port Talbot council and Margam Abbey Church stated the invention supplied “unparalleled details about Wales’ nationwide story”.

The crew’s findings have been shared solely with BBC Information forward of an announcement.

Geophysical surveys of the park – a preferred customer attraction in south Wales – have been commissioned as a part of a wider mission involving college pupils and the area people to study extra concerning the space’s heritage.

Scanning gadgets helped map potential archaeological options hidden underground.

The crew “struck gold” – discovering the footprint of a 572 sq m Roman villa surrounded by fortifications.

Langlands, co-director of Swansea College’s Centre for Heritage Analysis and Coaching, described it as a “actually spectacular and prestigious” constructing, prone to have been finely adorned with statues and mosaic flooring.

“We have got what seems to be a hall villa with two wings and a veranda operating alongside the entrance,” he defined.

“It is round 43m (141ft) lengthy and appears to have six essential rooms [to the front] with two corridors resulting in eight rooms on the rear.

“Nearly actually you’ve got acquired a serious native dignitary making themselves at dwelling right here,” he added.

“This could have been fairly a busy place – the centre of a giant agricultural property and plenty of individuals coming and going.”

As a standalone construction, it’s the largest villa but to have been found in Wales.

A lot of the recognized Roman stays in Wales are from navy camps and forts, whereas grandiose estates like this are much less generally discovered.

The invention would pressure consultants to “rewrite the best way we take into consideration south Wales within the Romano-British interval”, Langlands stated.

“This a part of Wales is not some type of borderland, the sting of empire – the truth is there have been buildings right here simply as refined and as excessive standing as these we get within the agricultural heartlands of southern England.”

It additionally confirmed that Margam – “a spot that will even have lent its title to the historic area of Glamorgan” – was “probably the most essential centres of energy in Wales”.

Christian Fowl of TerraDat, the Welsh agency which carried out the surveys, stated the pictures have been “remarkably clear, figuring out and mapping in 3D the villa construction, surrounding ditches and wider structure of the location”.

This features a substantial 354 sq m aisled constructing to the south east of the villa – which the crew believes was both some type of barn or assembly corridor.

The villa’s precise location is being saved secret for now, over fears it could possibly be focused by rogue metal detectorists.

Langlands stated conserving the location can be the primary precedence, earlier than additional survey work was carried out and funding hunted for future excavation.

It had the potential to be “Port Talbot’s Pompeii”, he advised, playfully referring to the ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

“Quite a lot of archaeologists get wound up by connections made with Pompeii however I believe it is partially justified due to the degrees of preservation right here,” he stated.

“We are able to see that within the survey knowledge initially, however we additionally know this has been a deer park for a whole bunch of years – it hasn’t been topic to the kind of ploughing [that has damaged many other villa sites].

“There is a actually thrilling prospect that we have got actually good survival of archaeological proof and the potential subsequently to inform an enormous quantity about what life was like again within the first, second, third, fourth and possibly even into the fifth Century.”

Additional particulars of the crew’s findings can be shared at an open day at Margam Abbey Church on 17 January.

Margaret Jones, a retired instructor from Port Talbot with a eager curiosity in native historical past, booked a ticket and stated she can’t wait to seek out out extra.

“I am nonetheless a bit shellshocked on the thought that this place the place I performed, the place my kids and grandchildren have performed – that beneath our ft was this unimaginable home,” she stated.

“It is out of this world.”

She added that Port Talbot had been by means of “so many disappointments” in recent times with major job losses at the local steelworks, however “this can put us on the map… and we’ll be proud”.

The invention was “simply unimaginable” and “one thing we could not dream of”, stated Harriet Eaton who runs a Younger Archaeologist Membership as a part of her function as Heritage Training Officer for Neath Port Talbot council.

“It will be improbable if there was a group excavation right here, [offering people] that fingers on connection to the historical past unveiling beneath us,” she stated.

Margam Nation Park is owned and run by the native council and was already an essential historic web site, with an Iron Age hillfort, the stays of a twelfth Century abbey and a powerful Victorian fort as simply a few of its sights.

However the villa discover helped fill “a giant hole in our information” about what was occurring in Margam through the Roman interval, in line with park supervisor Michael Wynne.

“It is a actually uncommon discover this far west and of such a major measurement – it is going to actually add to our information of Welsh and native historical past,” he stated, and imply “extra guests to Margam Park, to Neath Port Talbot and to Wales usually”.

“It is a actually excellent news story.”