The Llantwit Major Villa: A Reconsideration of the Evidence

Abstract

HE villa at Cae'r Mead, Llantwit Major, was discovered by J. C. Storrie in 1888.' He cut a trench along its north wing and located and cleared the remains of the tessellated pavement in Rooms 8 and 9. On this he found numerous skeletons which he regarded as evidence for a massacre, as well as several formal burials. He published a brief report with a good plan of his trench and a drawing of the pavement. Half a century later, from 1938 to 1948, V. E. Nash-Williams carried out extensive excavations, recovering the plan and much dating material.2 Recently, Dr. D. J. Smith has shown that the decorated pavement must be much later than previously believed,3 and Dr. Graham Webster, using this evidence and a re-examination of that published by Nash-Williams, has proposed a radically revised structural history.4 The suggestion has also been made that the villa was the actual home of St. Illtud,s founder of Llanilltud Fawr, of which the present Anglo-Latin name is a corruption.

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