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Mosaic discovery in Gloucestershire throws new light on Britain's Dark Ages
Britain's Dark Ages were not so dark, the National Trust has revealed, after archaeologists discovered an intricate mosaic built long after the Romans left. It was widely thought that when imperial troops withdrew in 410 AD they took civilisation with them and a benighted Britain fell into subsistence farming and warring factions. But archaeologists at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire have used buried bone to radiocarbon date a sophisticated floor mosaic to at least 428 AD - long after Roman rule ended. The first known 5th century mosaic in the UK shows that native Britons continued to enjoy a high level of craftsmanship, wealth, and luxury for far longer than previously thought. Results had to be checked twice as they contradict th
Culture & Entertainment
A recently discovered Roman-style mosaic is providing extraordinary new evidence that Roman civilisation didn't universally collapse after Imperial Roman authority came to an end in Britain. ... It is the first time in Britain that archaeologists have been able to date a mosaic to the post-Roman period.