A large chunk of history hid beneath this UK farm for centuries.
Jim Irvine was meandering around his father’s farm when he noticed some odd shards which, with the help of some Google Earth searches, led to one of Britain’s most significant Roman mosaic findings in the last century, Live Science reported.
“I noticed these bits of pottery, oyster shells and what I now know to be orange Roman roof tiles. I knew that they had no business being there so when I got home I had a look at the field on Google Earth and noticed a crop mark we’d never noticed before,” Irvine told the UK publication iNews. He proceeded to consult with a local museum before digging an 8-foot trench by the crop mark, stopping when he hit tile.
These would turn out to be a rare mosaic displaying scenes from Homer’s “The Iliad” — the first-ever found in the UK and one of only a known handful in Europe, according to a press release. The 1,700-year-old piece of art composes a wall in a Roman villa complex. Human remains were also found within the rubble that covered the mosaic.
“The villa, its mosaic and the surrounding complex is the most outstanding find in the recent archaeological history of Rutland, placing the county on a national and international stage and providing a vivid insight into the life and demise of the local Romano-British elite at a time of remarkable change and upheaval,” Leicestershire and Rutland county archaeologist Richard Clark said in the release. “The final phase of burials is just one of many intriguing aspects to the investigation, suggesting a continuing knowledge and respect for the site in the post-Roman period.”
As for how Irvine’s family managed to work the land for three decades without noticing the historic treasures buried beneath it, Irvine — who is himself an engineer — explains that farmers are “normally so busy concentrating on the thing you are doing that you don’t notice the soil.”
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