Thanks to generous grants of £2000 from the Roman Society Donald Atkinson Fund, and £978 from the Roman Research Trust, alongside donations from our volunteers of £1072, Teffont Archaeology Project was able to commission Dr Kevin Hayward to undertake analysis of the plaster and ceramic building material (CBM) assemblage from our 2024 excavations at Garsons Field Roman villa bath house, Wiltshire. Dr Hayward’s reporting provided detailed catalogues and discussions of the origin, function, distribution and decoration of the ceramic building material and plaster. These included high quality frescoes in a range of colours, with the most elaborate painted plaster in the original hot room of the baths. CBM was mainly brick and box flue tile, essentially representing pilae stacks and stoke holes (bricks) and flues within the walls of the bath house (box flue). Alongside the high quality mosaics, columns and other architectural stonework retrieved from the excavation, it is clear that although not a large establishment, this villa was decorated and built to a very high standard. This raises questions about its function, as there is a misalignment between its size and quality. Perhaps this is an occasionally used residence, part of wider landholdings of a very high status family?
