A 1,700-year-old Mosaic mosaic from a 1,700-year-old Roman period has been unearthed from a farmland in England, England, as well as the remains of an ancient villa. The mosaic depicts some of the scenes of the Trojan War told in Homer's classics, which is rare.
The trail of this extraordinary mosaic was first accidentally discovered by Jim Irvine of Rutland. He wandered around his father's farmland during the 2020 pandemic lockdown and stumbled upon fragments of ancient pottery scattered on the ground.
After doing some preliminary investigations himself, he informed Leicester County Council's Historical Environment team, who in turn contacted the University of Leicester Archaeological Service (ULAS), a commercial archaeological unit, to assist in archaeological excavations in the area. Owen was also fortunate to be involved in the excavation.
Given the peculiarities of the discovery, Historic England funded emergency archaeological excavations, with archaeologists first carefully cleaning up the exposed mosaics.
"When the first character was revealed, it was so amazing and joyful that we felt like we were seeing this history directly." John Thomas, deputy director of ULAS, said in a statement.
Researchers soon unearthed a remarkable Roman mosaic, 11 metres long and 7 metres wide, dating from the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, when mosaics were first discovered in Britain.
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