Roman – Page 2 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Image of the day – 46

The dark rectangle on the sheet of papyrus or vellum is a miniature abacus, a sort of pocket calculator!

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

After yesterday’s photo of the office, I thought you might like a closer look at the items on the desk. You can see various scrolls as well as a wax tablet in the middle at the front. The tablet would be used for making notes with a pointed stylus and could be erased with the flattened upper end of the same stylus – very convenient. This tablet is hinged so four writing surfaces are available.

The dark rectangle on the sheet of papyrus is a miniature abacus, a sort of pocket calculator! The papyrus itself has a plan of the property on it. Notice also the glass on the left and the glass decanter on the right (glass was fearfully expensive and therefore an extreme luxury item), several pottery vessels (one containing writing styli), two candlesticks for working after dark, and even some snacks. There’s a bowl of walnuts and another one containing ripe cherries.

Paperwork was just as much of a chore no doubt then as now. Despite the fact that paper had not yet been invented!

Images of the Roman villa

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Roman villa images:

Ceiling, Desk, Dining room, Exterior1, Exterior2, Garden, Kitchen, Mosaic floor, Office, Sitting room

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

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Image of the day – 45

In some ways, Roman life would have seemed quite familiar to us, at least the life led by people of reasonable means.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

The villa was a place where the master of the house continued his business while away from the cities. He would have had a small office for working on documents and meeting visiting colleagues and officials; he would also use the office when dealing with estate staff concerning the farming work.

Notice the fairly cluttered desk, the comfortable working chair, and two seats across the desk for visitors. There are cupboards for storage, and even a waste bin. We’ll take a closer look at what’s on the desk in the next Image of the day.

In some ways, Roman life would have seemed quite familiar to us, at least the life led by people of reasonable means. In Saxon and medieval times it’s almost as if the calendar has been turned back, not forwards!

Images of the Roman villa

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Roman villa images:

Ceiling, Desk, Dining room, Exterior1, Exterior2, Garden, Kitchen, Mosaic floor, Office, Sitting room

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 44

The ancient forests…would have supported populations of wild boar, wolves would have roamed the forests too.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Here’s another view of the villa, you can see one of the farm outbuildings on the left, and a newly planted vineyard in front of the villa. An access road of pounded stone passes this side of a wooden fence, note the avenue of young trees growing on both sides of this road.

It looks very much the way the original villa would have done in Roman times. Two things really give the game away, though. The young vines have modern protection tubes around them to prevent animal damage (these will be removed onece the vines are three or four years old). And the pattern of modern agriculture in the background is entirely wrong. Roman fields would have been much, much smaller and would not have extended far from the villa. Instead, the more distant parts of this view would have been much more heavily wooded.

Today’s conservationists would love to see parts of our landscape return to the way it was in Roman times. A lot of mature forest was cut down during the days of the British Empire to supply timber for the Royal Navy’s ships, as well as for fuel and the growth of towns and cities. The ancient forests that were lost would have supported populations of wild boar, wolves would have roamed the forests too and would have kept the deer population density lower than it is today. This in turn would have made it more likely that tree and wild flower seeds would have survived and spread more abundantly.

Beavers would have created localised ponds and small lakes that would have naturally regulated water flow, and the natural vegetation would have trapped heavy rainfall and released if gradually, reducing flooding. Almost all the British landscape today is far from it’s natural climax state.

So the view beyond the villa would have been altogether different from the modern landscape in the photo.

Images of the Roman villa

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Roman villa images:

Ceiling, Desk, Dining room, Exterior1, Exterior2, Garden, Kitchen, Mosaic floor, Office, Sitting room

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 43

It would have been a delight to walk on a floor of this sort, especially with the underfloor heating that wealthy Romans had in their villas and town houses.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Although most of us will have seen Roman tessellated pavements in museums or at excavation sites, few people will have seen a recently laid floor of this kind. What did a new mosaic floor look like? It looked like this one at The Newt in Somerset!

It would have been a delight to walk on a floor of this sort, especially with the underfloor heating that wealthy Romans had in their villas and town houses. Cool in hot weather, but luxuriously warm in a British winter when the furnace outside had been lit and was being tended by a slave or servant, a warm floor was a wonderful thing indeed.

In the upper left, you will notice some musical instruments placed on stools, when the musicians return in a moment they’ll pick up the instruments, sit on the stools, and begin playing. And then the Master and his dinner guests will arrive to enjoy music until they go through to the triclinium for the meal to be served.

Images of the Roman villa

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Roman villa images:

Ceiling, Desk, Dining room, Exterior1, Exterior2, Garden, Kitchen, Mosaic floor, Office, Sitting room

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 35

When natural food supplies are plentiful, it may be better to let them find their own.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

This young robin perched on the back of a chair at our table in the cafe of the Great Glasshouse. Clearly hoping for some dropped particles of food, but disappointed as we only had coffees at the time.

Is it good to feed wild birds? Sometimes this is a no-brainer. In the short, cold days of winter when food may be hard to come by, a bowl of tepid water and some fruit, seeds, fat balls or dried insect larvae may be just the thing they need to avoid dehydration, starvation or hypothermia. But when natural food supplies are plentiful, it may be better to let them find their own. Here’s some good advice from the RSPB.

Coincidentally, my second Image of the day was also of a robin.

Images from our Irish holiday 2024

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Irish holiday images:

28th Jul – Welsh Botanic Garden, Robin, Fishguard
29th Jul – Wicklow Mts, Glendalough, Powerscourt, Rose, Greystones
30th Jul – Liffey, Temple Bar, St Patrick’s Cathedral
31st Jul – Newgrange, Battle of the Boyne
1st Aug – Monasterboice, Mourne, Thrift, Window
2nd Aug – Spelga Dam, Hydrangea, Pipework, Lough Neagh
3rd Aug – Coagh, Springhill, Portrush
4th Aug – Beach at Portrush
5th Aug – Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, Portrush

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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