What I Did On My Holiday- Part 1
An account of mine and m31andy's recent holiday on the Isle OF Wight.
(Yes, I know, very rock'n'roll....)
High were our hearts and the weather... quite miserable actually as we set off from Waterloo on Thursday. We took the boat train to Portsmouth, the catamaran ferry over to Ryde in the North of the island and then (and I'd swear blind this was the reason Andy wanted to go there in particular) we took the train to Sandown- which was an old London Underground train from 1938. Which was, I have to say, way cool. We checked in to the guest house, then went off for a bit of an exporation of the town.
Sandown has some great pubs and excellent beer, but on a Thursday night in the off season, the square root of smeg-all places to eat.
Hence the killer hangovers the next day....
Out of the seven pubs in the town we went to four of them that evening, and it wasn't always just the one pint in each. Owowow.....
Because of the above, we were rather later getting going on Friday morning than we might have been, and only made it out properly at about one o'clock- to find that the tourist information place was closed for lunch. Let's hear it for Googlemaps....
And I am so much my mother's daughter. We decided to go up to the nearby Roman villa at Brading with a picnic (happily, the weather had improved markedly. For all of our three days there it was rather overcast in the mornings but then the sun burned through the clouds to result in glorious sunshine, with the sea breezes to keep it cool enough to make walking fun).
We just managed to miss the school group which was leaving as we arrived and had most of the villa to ourselves- there were maybe 5 other visitors and a guide.
The villa itself had been discovered at the end of the 18th Century, almost by accident. Some local children had sold some loose tesserae from the mostly covered over mosaics to an amateur archaeologist, who started investigating for himself. One of the first mosaics he and the farmer who owned the site discovered was of a rather enigmatic image of a man with a cock's head- that's 'cock' as in 'male chicken', for those of you sniggering at the back- which might have been a characature of Caeser Gallus as 'Gallus' means 'cock' in Latin.
It's not the only peculiar mosaic in the building, other oddities include the anthorpomophised depictions of the South Wind and of Winter, a number of eye symbols, and a swastika image under where the master of the villa's chair would probably have been in the reception room. I'll come to those in more detail in a moment.
The mosaics at Brading are remarkable for their level of preservation in the front part of the reception room- a good 90% of that one survives intact. This was because after the villa was burnt down the remains were taken over by the locals who used it for drying corn or storing beans- the beans were in the well-preverved room and were still there when it was being excavated, protecting it from a lot of damage.
The mosaic in this area had Medusa's head as a centrepiece- further back in the room there is an image of Perseus and Andromeda. It was a bit of a theme. Around this central image are images of each of the four winds, but whilst the East, West and North winds are blowing in a clockwise direction, the South wind is blowing anti-clockwise. Also, Medusa's head is at an angle- it isn't lined up with the rest of the design. Are the two related? Is there some specific symbolism here, or is the design not perfectly simply to avoid offending the gods by humans claiming to be perfect? Boasting about one's accomplishments was what got Medusa into trouble in the first place, and the owner of the villa was clearly very pleased with himself, looking at all the other mosaics around. Forstalling divine retribution, maybe? Didn't seem to work very well...
There's another square design at the back of the room, and at each corner is a representation of the seasons. This one was much more damaged- most of it has gone and only three corner images remain. 'Spring' was represented by a head with flower buds, 'Summer' by a head with open roses. 'Autumn' is missing, but 'Winter' is intact, represented by a human, female head with a dead bird. Spring and Summer both look like the Roman images I've sen a hundred times, but Winder looks positively Byzantine. She's wearing a headdress that could be a wimple- although to be honest it could also be called a hijab. Sollersuk, I have a postcard of it to show you, as I'd love to know what you make of it. I don't recall seeing a Roman mosaic with women in that sort of headdress- it's definitly not a shawl pulled over the head.
It is currently thought that the villa was burnt down at some point in the 3rd century, but it's hard to tell because the Victorian excavation of the site destroyed a lot of the evidence that could have told us more- I suppose they did their best but Victorian archaeology tended more towards the shiny. Day-to-day stuff like beltbuckles seemed to be of less interest. And when earth is being moved in large quantities without sifting it's very easy to lose things for good. But there's more work planned which might tell us more, and there's a growing suspician that the mosaics may be from a later time than was a first thought.
There was any amount of Samienware found, but that's not really much use for dating sites....
Two very odd mosaic images remaining- first, the eye. That was in the middle of a small-ish room whose use hasn't been identified. There was also found a metal impliment, pointed at one end and bulbous at the other, which might have been used for applying make-up but which resembles also a tool found in a Roman optician's kit- the pointed end used for breaking up a cateract and the rounded for helping remove it.
All of a sudden, my hangover didn't seem so bad....
There was also a diamond-shaped token with an eye symbol on it in the same room. Maybe the chap was a martyr to eye-trouble....
The last one- the left-facing swastika under the master's chair. I've seen swastikas as part of a border design, but not one on its own. Moreover, while the main design was detailed and intricate, with very small tesserae, the tesserae in the swastika were noticably larger and the lines were only one tile wide. It was much cruder, as if it wasn't there to show off one's wealth and accomplishments but was put there to BE there. It wouldn't have been visible, at a guess. It's believed to have been under the master's chair as it is back towards the rear wall, exactly opposite the doorway. Right where he would have sat to recieve visitors.
There's an explaination which would cover both the destruction of the original villa and the swastika- if the master of the villa had been on the side of Carausius (who had rebelled against Rome and had declared himself to be the Emperor of Britain) then he himself might have been of Germanic stock and, whilst doing all the Roman things like having a big villa with elaborate mosaics, still held to his roots with the swastika. And then, once Allectus had killed and taken over from Carausius, got caught up in the revenge from Rome- Allectus' ships were stationed at the Isle of Wight to fight off the Roman ships (which failed, due to fog).
Mind you, the owner of the villa seems to have been a local farmer made good- there's no Mithras images which suggest not a soldier, but there is a sizable Bacchus mosaic. And the villa may have been burnt in a simple smash-and-grab by pirates.
It's rather odd.
Fingers crossed for more information coming out from future digs....
Andy and I spent absolutely ages there before we'd exhausted everything and ourselves and we headed back to Sandown for the evening.
If you get to the pubs in time for food they have rather good menus; we went to a pub called the Caulkhead where they know what you mean when you ask for your steak rare. It practically moo'd.
A slightly earlier night ready for a nice long walk the next day.
Which I'll write up later, if I remember....
(Yes, I know, very rock'n'roll....)
High were our hearts and the weather... quite miserable actually as we set off from Waterloo on Thursday. We took the boat train to Portsmouth, the catamaran ferry over to Ryde in the North of the island and then (and I'd swear blind this was the reason Andy wanted to go there in particular) we took the train to Sandown- which was an old London Underground train from 1938. Which was, I have to say, way cool. We checked in to the guest house, then went off for a bit of an exporation of the town.
Sandown has some great pubs and excellent beer, but on a Thursday night in the off season, the square root of smeg-all places to eat.
Hence the killer hangovers the next day....
Out of the seven pubs in the town we went to four of them that evening, and it wasn't always just the one pint in each. Owowow.....
Because of the above, we were rather later getting going on Friday morning than we might have been, and only made it out properly at about one o'clock- to find that the tourist information place was closed for lunch. Let's hear it for Googlemaps....
And I am so much my mother's daughter. We decided to go up to the nearby Roman villa at Brading with a picnic (happily, the weather had improved markedly. For all of our three days there it was rather overcast in the mornings but then the sun burned through the clouds to result in glorious sunshine, with the sea breezes to keep it cool enough to make walking fun).
We just managed to miss the school group which was leaving as we arrived and had most of the villa to ourselves- there were maybe 5 other visitors and a guide.
The villa itself had been discovered at the end of the 18th Century, almost by accident. Some local children had sold some loose tesserae from the mostly covered over mosaics to an amateur archaeologist, who started investigating for himself. One of the first mosaics he and the farmer who owned the site discovered was of a rather enigmatic image of a man with a cock's head- that's 'cock' as in 'male chicken', for those of you sniggering at the back- which might have been a characature of Caeser Gallus as 'Gallus' means 'cock' in Latin.
It's not the only peculiar mosaic in the building, other oddities include the anthorpomophised depictions of the South Wind and of Winter, a number of eye symbols, and a swastika image under where the master of the villa's chair would probably have been in the reception room. I'll come to those in more detail in a moment.
The mosaics at Brading are remarkable for their level of preservation in the front part of the reception room- a good 90% of that one survives intact. This was because after the villa was burnt down the remains were taken over by the locals who used it for drying corn or storing beans- the beans were in the well-preverved room and were still there when it was being excavated, protecting it from a lot of damage.
The mosaic in this area had Medusa's head as a centrepiece- further back in the room there is an image of Perseus and Andromeda. It was a bit of a theme. Around this central image are images of each of the four winds, but whilst the East, West and North winds are blowing in a clockwise direction, the South wind is blowing anti-clockwise. Also, Medusa's head is at an angle- it isn't lined up with the rest of the design. Are the two related? Is there some specific symbolism here, or is the design not perfectly simply to avoid offending the gods by humans claiming to be perfect? Boasting about one's accomplishments was what got Medusa into trouble in the first place, and the owner of the villa was clearly very pleased with himself, looking at all the other mosaics around. Forstalling divine retribution, maybe? Didn't seem to work very well...
There's another square design at the back of the room, and at each corner is a representation of the seasons. This one was much more damaged- most of it has gone and only three corner images remain. 'Spring' was represented by a head with flower buds, 'Summer' by a head with open roses. 'Autumn' is missing, but 'Winter' is intact, represented by a human, female head with a dead bird. Spring and Summer both look like the Roman images I've sen a hundred times, but Winder looks positively Byzantine. She's wearing a headdress that could be a wimple- although to be honest it could also be called a hijab. Sollersuk, I have a postcard of it to show you, as I'd love to know what you make of it. I don't recall seeing a Roman mosaic with women in that sort of headdress- it's definitly not a shawl pulled over the head.
It is currently thought that the villa was burnt down at some point in the 3rd century, but it's hard to tell because the Victorian excavation of the site destroyed a lot of the evidence that could have told us more- I suppose they did their best but Victorian archaeology tended more towards the shiny. Day-to-day stuff like beltbuckles seemed to be of less interest. And when earth is being moved in large quantities without sifting it's very easy to lose things for good. But there's more work planned which might tell us more, and there's a growing suspician that the mosaics may be from a later time than was a first thought.
There was any amount of Samienware found, but that's not really much use for dating sites....
Two very odd mosaic images remaining- first, the eye. That was in the middle of a small-ish room whose use hasn't been identified. There was also found a metal impliment, pointed at one end and bulbous at the other, which might have been used for applying make-up but which resembles also a tool found in a Roman optician's kit- the pointed end used for breaking up a cateract and the rounded for helping remove it.
All of a sudden, my hangover didn't seem so bad....
There was also a diamond-shaped token with an eye symbol on it in the same room. Maybe the chap was a martyr to eye-trouble....
The last one- the left-facing swastika under the master's chair. I've seen swastikas as part of a border design, but not one on its own. Moreover, while the main design was detailed and intricate, with very small tesserae, the tesserae in the swastika were noticably larger and the lines were only one tile wide. It was much cruder, as if it wasn't there to show off one's wealth and accomplishments but was put there to BE there. It wouldn't have been visible, at a guess. It's believed to have been under the master's chair as it is back towards the rear wall, exactly opposite the doorway. Right where he would have sat to recieve visitors.
There's an explaination which would cover both the destruction of the original villa and the swastika- if the master of the villa had been on the side of Carausius (who had rebelled against Rome and had declared himself to be the Emperor of Britain) then he himself might have been of Germanic stock and, whilst doing all the Roman things like having a big villa with elaborate mosaics, still held to his roots with the swastika. And then, once Allectus had killed and taken over from Carausius, got caught up in the revenge from Rome- Allectus' ships were stationed at the Isle of Wight to fight off the Roman ships (which failed, due to fog).
Mind you, the owner of the villa seems to have been a local farmer made good- there's no Mithras images which suggest not a soldier, but there is a sizable Bacchus mosaic. And the villa may have been burnt in a simple smash-and-grab by pirates.
It's rather odd.
Fingers crossed for more information coming out from future digs....
Andy and I spent absolutely ages there before we'd exhausted everything and ourselves and we headed back to Sandown for the evening.
If you get to the pubs in time for food they have rather good menus; we went to a pub called the Caulkhead where they know what you mean when you ask for your steak rare. It practically moo'd.
A slightly earlier night ready for a nice long walk the next day.
Which I'll write up later, if I remember....