This month at Butser we’ve been delighted to receive a new addition to our Roman Villa - a beautiful Lararium, or Roman household shrine, made specifically for the Villa and donated by artist Isabel Young from the Royal College of Art.

In the 20th anniversary year of our Villa it’s wonderful to see the Villa continue to grow and enable us to be able to expand the stories we can tell about Roman life in this unique space.

Find out more about the new addition below.

In ancient Roman dwellings a Lararium (a shrine to the household gods) would have been an important feature in every home and used in the practice of everyday private worship. Such artefacts found in the excavations of Pompeii have been a source of inspiration for Isabel Young, artist and Senior Tutor (Research) at the Royal College of Art, who has built a brand new Lararium for our beautiful Roman Villa. A free-standing aedicula now inhabits the mosaic room awaiting re-enactments and offerings in the interpretation of religious beliefs and ritual practices.

The Lararium has been designed with reference to the architecture of Butser’s Roman Villa and mirrors the wooden shutters, trusses, roof tiles and colour scheme of the villa building itself. While the theme is ancient, a combination of traditional and modern techniques has been used by Isabel to create the new shrine, including high tech laser cutting technology.

Paintings are an important part of Roman Lararium design, and a total of 8 paintings of snakes, as protective spirits of the house, decorate the surfaces of the shrine. The central figure of Ceres, goddess of harvest, and to whom the shrine is dedicated, presides over the altar as an important divinity for the farming community of Butser Ancient Farm. 

The Lararium has evolved from Isabel Young’s long-term exploration of the cultural dynamics of the house, vernacular architecture, ancient buildings, and the people who lived in them. We hope that this new addition to Butser can be used to expand on knowledge and understanding of relationships between the house, site, landscape, family, religion, ritual practices, and the pantheon of Roman deities.

A huge thank you to Isabel for creating this wonderful shrine for the villa!

Come and visit us from the 1st to the 4th June 2023 to meet Isabel and make a clay figurine to the roman household gods on a special drop-in workshop (included in your admission price) inspired by the Lararium.