Barn conversions were not a recent development for the property-owning classes.
The site of a Roman villa complex in the east Midlands has been found to have a bathing suite with a hot steam room, a warm room and a cold plunge pool.
Two years after a family found fragments of ancient pottery on a ramble through farmland, fresh evidence of the villa owners lavish lifestyle came to light. A mosaic depicting Homer's Iliad was unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Leicestershire.
It was described as the most exciting Roman mosaic discovery in the UK in the last century.
A barn the size of a small church has been found at the site.
The barn may have had two floors. In the third or fourth century, it was converted to stone and became a dwelling with many floors.
The Roman-style bath suite was the main feature of the house. Water may have been collected from the roof by placing a tank outside.
The area of the mosaic that was thought to be in the dining room of the main villa building was reexamined. They found pieces of marble, broken stone columns and painted wall plaster.
The dining room was built as an extension to the main villa and was supposed to be a special place for feast.
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One mosaic with a geometric design was found in the corridors leading to the dining room.
The significance of the Roman villa complex to our understanding of life in late Roman Britain is hard to overstate. While previous excavations of individual buildings, or smaller-scale villas, have given us a snapshot, this discovery in Rutland is much more complete and provides a clear picture of the whole complex.
The aim of this year's work is to investigate other buildings within the villa complex to give context to the war. We can learn a lot more about why it was here, and who might have commissioned it, by looking at the villa as a whole.
The site had posed many questions about life in Roman Britain. He said that the evidence would be examined over the next few years.
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