Roman houses and villas

When the Romans first came to Britain, although they had an immediate impact in some places, in others Iron Age life continued with few changes. People still lived in round-houses and used the same pottery and ate the same things. Gradually different house types, objects and food became more popular, though the old ways of life didn’t get completely swept away. Some Iron Age farmsteads got replaced by villas. 

Roman villas

Look at the aerial photograph to the right and the ones your teacher gives you. Can you see the crop-marks that might be the remains of a Roman villa? Try to work out from the field boundaries where the villa is on a map. Line up the field boundaries and draw a plan of the villa on the map.

The Roman villa is a very different shape to an Iron Age round-house. The materials they are built of and the furnishing inside are very different to an Iron Age house as well. Do some research on Roman villas on the Internet and in books to find out what you can about what they were made out of and what kind of things were inside them. Write what you find out here:

You have a map to show you where the Roman villas are in Buckinghamshire attached to this page. Try to find out from Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal which ones are which and mark them on your map.

1. Find one that has been excavated. What is it called? 
2. When was it excavated?
3. What did the excavations uncover?

Look at the reconstructed Yewden villa on the right. Try to find ten differences between an Iron Age house, below, and a Roman villa and write them here:

Go back to find more Changes in the landscape.