Litlington, Cambridgeshire - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The evaluation carried out by Time Team, comprising ten trenches and eleven testpits, was able to confirm the position of the ‘Litlington villa’, though it was not possible to determine its full extent or layout. Newspaper accounts of the villa from the time of its discovery, describing it as being a very well appointed structure containing 30 rooms and a bathhouse, with many fine tessellated pavements, may be exaggerated, but some painted wall plaster was recovered, as well as significant quantities of ceramic building material, including box flue tiles from a hypocaust, and the remains of some (monochrome) tessellated pavements did survive in situ. In other respects, however, the material culture seems to have been fairly limited in its range; few coins or other metal objects were found, and only one piece of vessel glass. The presumed bathhouse identified during the 19th century was not located.

The position of the ‘Heaven’s Walls’ cemetery was also confirmed, to the south-east of the villa. Here it seems that although 19th century quarrying had been extensive, some remains might still survive – one slightly truncated inhumation grave was revealed, although the remains were left in situ. Further disarticulated human bone was found within the backfill of the quarry pits. The testpit evidence suggested that further Roman remains may have been destroyed by the housing estate which lay to the north-east of the villa site.