Long buried under the land of Kent, one of the southernmost Roman villas on the island of Brittany should end its course under the waves.
It takes place in Folkestone, not far from the UK entrance to the Channel Tunnel.
There, the loose earth, the sandstone and the clay gradually bow before the repeated assaults of the sea. Aware of the danger, the British archaeologists completed in September the unearthing of a mosaic of the site which they hope , in the long term, to be able to preserve it in a museum.
Already exhumed in 1924, this mosaic had been reburied in 1957 in order to preserve it in the long term.
A building erected to protect it from the weather had been destroyed during the Second World War, damaging the part of the mosaic that had survived the parade of centuries.
The luxurious floor, decorated with geometric flourishes and medallions, adorned the summer dining room, the main one of the residence.
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For the archaeologists, it was necessary to make sure of the state of the mosaic before being able to put it definitively in safety against the rising waters.
“We didn't really know what to expect.
I wouldn't have been surprised if there wasn't much left
of it,” said operations manager Keith Parfitt in a statement from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, responsible for excavating the site.
Better preserved than expected, the vestige will be temporarily covered at the end of the operation, until the terms of its rescue are decided by the authorities.
Excavation of the Folkestone Villa mosaic in September.
Rebuilt in the 2nd century, the luxurious residence threatened by erosion could have belonged to a commander of a Roman fleet.
Canterbury Archaeological Trust
The increasing erosion of the English coasts endangers the human settlement of the coast, but also the vestiges of History.
Last week, the public body English Heritage, which manages some 400 historic sites across the Channel, sounded the alarm about the threat posed by rising sea levels to English heritage.
This increase, estimated at around 16.5 centimeters since 1900, is accelerating due to global warming, researchers from the University of East Anglia warned in March.
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Save what can be saved
In Folkestone, the voracious appetite of the sea has already made itself felt at the edge of the archaeological site.
If at least 130 meters still separate the heart of the remains of the first waves, the cliff on which the villa is perched is quickly curling up.
At the beginning of 2020, a significant section of the coast collapsed, accelerating the process.
"The clay cliffs on which the villa sits are unstable and relentless erosion means the site will gradually disappear into the sea over the next hundred years
," Keith Parfitt told
Le Figaro
.
Several pieces of a bath suite have already been lost since they were first excavated in the 1920s.
Some 30 meters from the edge of the cliff in 1924, the most endangered wing of the villa is now located just 2.25 meters from the precipice.
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Local researchers have been active since 2010 on the archaeological site, which covers an area of more than three hectares.
Facing the small bay of East Wear, they toil, campaign after campaign, to document and preserve as many remains as possible before their inevitable destruction.
For Keith Parfitt, these excavations certainly do not come too soon, given the limited means of the team.
"The Mosaic Room is not yet in imminent danger, which gives us time to prepare for its loss and to consider preserving what can be preserved in the Folkestone Museum
," he said.
But all this is expensive and depends on the funds that we will have to continue the archaeological operations on the site”.
Rebuilt in the firmament of the Roman Empire, in the 2nd century AD, this complex with a magnificent view of the sea had more than fifty rooms and two baths before being abandoned in Late Antiquity.
A hypothesis advanced since the 1920s proposes to see there the residence of a prefect of the
Classis Britannica
, that is to say of the Roman navy of Brittany.
This track is based on the discovery of several epigraphic remains, such as tiles, engraved with inscriptions referring to this fleet.
Finally, the site of Folkestone conceals some traces of a Celtic occupation, prior to the conquest of Brittany, highlighted during the last excavation campaigns.
So many vestiges to preserve before the whole thing falls into the water.
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