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Iron Age house

This is a reconstruction of the kind of house Iron Age people lived in just before the Roman conquest of southern Britain in AD 43. Walls were made of wattle (woven branches) covered with daub (clay). The roof was a wooden frame probably covered with thatch. There is sometimes evidence for a small hearth inside the house. We don’t know if there were any windows.
Archaeologists don’t find much evidence for these buildings. Why do you think this is?
What do you think it would be like to live in a house like this?
Iron Age settlement   An Iron Age settlement just before the Roman conquest in AD 43. People farmed the land and fished in the rivers and sea. They made and decorated their pottery by hand and used money. We know all this because archaeologists find coins, bones of animals like pigs, cattle and sheep and sherds of the pottery.
This picture has been drawn using evidence from Canterbury.
Reconstruction of Roman Villa   This is a reconstruction of the Roman villa found at Folkestone’s East Cliff. Archaeologists excavated the villa site in 1924, 1989 and are going there again in 2010 and 2011 to find more remains from Roman and Iron Age times. See how big the villa is compared to the smaller modern house. The villa had lots of rooms and was built with stone, clay bricks and tiles. It had under-floor heating and running water – luxuries in Roman times. Some of the rooms had mosaics and decorated walls. The villa had a wonderful sea view across the English Channel to France.
What kind of people would have lived in a place like this?
Aerial photograph of the Roman villa   An aerial photograph of the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff when it was excavated in 1924. In Roman times the villa would have been built well back from the cliff edge. But by the 20th century the cliff face had eroded so much that the villa was now at the cliff edge and had begun to fall onto the beach below. In 2010 and 2011 archaeologists are at the site again to rescue more ancient remains before they are lost forever.
Plan of Roman villa   A plan of the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff excavated in 1924. Archaeologists draw, photograph and write notes about their discoveries. They call this recording.
Why do you think it is important to record the evidence? 
Key to plan of Roman villa   Key to the plan of the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff excavated in 1924. Look at the rooms there were and how many. What does this tell us about the person or people who owned the villa? Can we think of any modern buildings with rooms like this?
Roman mosaic   Mosaic found at the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff excavated in 1924. It was made with grey ragstone, white chalk and red brick tesserae. There is enough of it left to work out a pattern. The mosaic was in a room identified as a dining room (Room No. 40). From this room there was a view straight out to sea!
You could find other pictures of Roman mosaics. 
Roman wall painting   Roman wall painting from a villa at Pompei in Italy. Pieces of coloured wall paintings have been found at the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff. These show that some rooms were decorated. 
Roman wall painting   Roman wall painting from a villa at Pompei in Italy. Pieces of coloured wall paintings have been found at the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff. These show that some rooms were decorated. 
Roman hypocaust   Drawing showing how a Roman hypocaust worked. Heat from a furnace beneath the floor kept the floor above warm. The hot air could also travel up special box tiles built into the walls. The Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff had some warm and hot rooms and bath rooms. Not all Roman houses had the luxury of under-floor heating.
Roman hypocaust   A hypocaust at the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff showing pilae stacks. This room is known as room 12.
Model of a Roman dining room   Model of a Roman dining room. It has the under-floor heating chamber (hypocaust), mosaic floor and painted walls.
(This model is from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust loans collection (CAT BOX collection)).
Roman public baths   Artist’s drawing of Roman public baths. The bath is heated and the walls and mosaic floors are very colourful. People didn’t use soap as we do. They rubbed oil into their warm skin and then scraped the oil and dirt off using a strigil. The bather on the right is holding a flask of oil and using a metal strigil. In the baths at the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff, archaeologists found two animal rib bones that they think bathers used as strigils!
Roman public baths   Cartoon of Roman chaps at the baths!
Mosaic panels from a Roman town house   Mosaic panels from a Roman town house in Canterbury. They were built into the floor of a corridor. The Roman Museum has been built around them. The tesserae are made from pieces of red brick, grey ragstone and white limestone. A mosaic salesman could have samples of different designs for customers to look through – like we see in carpet shops now.
A reconstructed Roman kitchen   A reconstructed kitchen at the Roman Museum in Canterbury. At the Roman villa at Folkestone’s East Cliff archaeologists found lots of chopped up animal bones in the kitchens where servants had been cooking. They even found knives and spoons that had been left behind.
Reconstruction drawing of a Roman villa   A reconstruction drawing of a Roman villa discovered at Maidstone. This villa has been built beside a river.
Reconstruction drawing of Roman Canterbury   This is a drawing of a Roman town. It is how Canterbury may have looked. Archaeologists have interpreted the evidence from many excavations to make the drawing. Roman towns in Britain usually had the same kind of buildings. In the drawing you can see the public baths (bottom right). These were like a modern leisure centre. In the centre is the theatre. Opposite the theatre is a temple with a large courtyard. A town like this would have had markets and shops with people living above them. It would have been a busy, bustling place like a lot of our towns today.
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