During May half term we celebrated the completion of our Roman Villa renovations as the final tesserae of our mosaic was laid, the final lick of paint applied to the walls, and furniture and flowers made the building into a home.The villa, based on excavations from Sparsholt near Winchester, is now displayed in a way we feel represents how those who lived here almost 2000 years ago may have experienced the villa. The mosaic is a copy of the design originally in the villa, the walls have been painted based on evidence from the plaster found during excavations and we have furnished the space according to current research and experiments about use of domestic space. Of course, despite our renovations being finished for now, this is just the beginning of a new phase of life for the villa and there is still more we would like to do! We are now able to test out, adapt and reflect changing theories about life in a Roman villa... things never stand still for very long at Butser!Here are some photos of the villa taken last week and of our opening celebrations to mark the occasion. Many thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make the villa renovations a success!
