IT HAS won universal approval and royal patronage — as it continues to yield up its secrets of the past.
Now, the tantalising next phase of the Island’s most important archaeological excavation for more than a century gets underway at the weekend.
Sunday signals the start of the Big Dig at Brading Roman Villa with one of the country’s leading archaeologists, Prof Sir Barry Cunliffe, pictued below, again leading the 21-day exploration.
The Island’s high sheriff, Gay Edwards, will open the latest phase of the excavation, which this year will concentrate on the South Range, widely believed to be a wing of the villa.
What lies beneath the range has been shrouded in mystery since it was last unearthed in 1882 by Victorian archaeologists, who left a site map, but no details of any of the finds.
Canon David Low, deputy chairman of the villa trustees, said: "We assume there were barns and farm supply buildings there.
"Dowsers have made an investigation and conclude there could be a well there, which means it is possible there may be a bath house on the site."
Sir Barry’s team will also be doing some work inside the villa on one of the back rooms.
The £50,000 needed to undertake this year’s dig, part of an ambitious five-year programme, was achieved by year-round fundraising efforts, donations and grants.
"To fund the programme, we need to raise this level of money each year," said Ken Hicks, chairman of the Big Dig’s fundraising committee.
"Without the support of our sponsors, the 2009 dig could not have gone ahead. We are therefore extremely grateful to them all."
The dig was organised jointly by the Oglander Roman Trust, which manages the villa, and the site’s support group, the Friends of Brading Roman Villa.
Previous discoveries have revealed evidence that the area has been continuously occupied for 3,500 years through Roman and Saxon times.
Award-winning Brading Roman Villa has received royal approval from the Duke of Edinburgh, when he opened the £3 million enclosure, and his youngest son, the Earl of Wessex, on a number of tours of the site.
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