Publications
Gilt-glass tesserae from Southwick Roman villa, West Sussex: a reappraisal, by Giles Standing and G. Jeffery Leigh, published 2012 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 150, short article, pp.214-) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18615] & The Keep [LIB/500368] & S.A.S. library View Online
Southwick Roman villa. Its discovery, excavation, public display and eventual loss - A Cautionary Tale., by David Rudling and G. Jeff Leigh, published 2013 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 151, article) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18616] & The Keep [LIB/507730] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:This paper provides a history of the discovery, excavation, attempts at interpretation, public display, ownership, and eventual loss/general destruction of one of the most important archaeological sites to have been found in Sussex: a large early Roman villa (or 'mini-palace') at Southwick. It is ultimately a very sad story, beginning with various very poorly recorded excavations in the 19th century before eventual large-scale but still poorly documented excavations and then public display in the 1930s. Ultimately, in the 1950s, the lack of adequate financial resources resulted in the then owners and guardians of the villa, the Sussex Archaeological Trust, deciding to sell the site for building development. Also sad is the fact that most of the finds recovered from the various 19th- and 20th-century excavations are not kept in museums; instead, many finds were given away or not retained. We recount this sorry and cautionary tale, but also provide the results of recent research including the 'discovery' and now publication of two important 19th-century excavation plans.
Gold Glass Tesserae said to be from the Roman Villa Site at Southwick, West Sussex, by Liz James, G. J. Leigh and Nadine Schibille, published September 2013 in The Antiquaries Journal (vol. 93, article, pp.93-107) View Online
Abstract:This paper seeks to characterise through elemental analysis some unusual gold glass tesserae said to have been found at a Roman villa site in Southwick, West Sussex. The site is no longer accessible, being underneath a Methodist chapel, but it has been excavated, to some extent, on several occasions. Glass tesserae are not common in a British setting but they are by no means unusual in Roman mosaics. Gold glass tesserae, however, in which gold leaf is sandwiched between two layers of glass, are very unusual: fewer than twenty such tesserae are known from Roman Britain and the seven examples from Southwick make up the largest single group. However, the provenance of these Southwick tesserae remains doubtful and so they were analysed and compared to gold glass tesserae from Roman London to try and establish whether they are compositionally related to typical Roman glass. For comparative reasons, the handful of coloured glass tesserae from Southwick were also analysed. Our results suggest that the tesserae said to be from Southwick are anomalous in relation to the other material and cannot be assigned to the Roman period.