Ancient Roman villa built with imported timber discovered under city

A recent discovery has revealed an ancient villa made of timber imported from over 1000 miles away under the city of Rome. Timber often degrades and so is difficult to be found for archeological analysis. Analysts hope that the discovered traces will help to better understand the trading routes that existed 2,000 years ago. The villa was initially discovered between 2014 to 2016 while digging the earth for Rome Metro. Researchers said that the villa and once stood in the gardens of Via Sannio. Mauro BernabeiI, from the National Research Council, Italy told the media that the villa used to be quite rich. They have mapped mosaics and columns and many different layers of buildings and constructions in the structure.

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Timber planks transported over 1000 miles 

About 24 oak timber planks were found at the site by Bernabeil and his team. They first tried to date the timber by studying the rings. Yet it turned out that the wood belonged to trees found far away in the Jura mountains in eastern France, over 1,000 miles from Rome. Further analysis revealed that the planks were cut down between 40 and 60 AD. Bernbail explained that the wood would have had to be moved over land by animals, then across both the Saone and Rhone rivers, then transported across the Mediterranean Sea until reaching the Tiber River and arriving in the centre of Rome.

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Roman architecture has been a rich subject of study for historians, architects, and archaeologists. Researchers studied how they used concrete, in which they used volcanic ash to prevent cracking. These techniques are the reason why structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum, have survived for so long. Bernabeil said that the usage of wood plays a key role in understanding the building of the city's economy, trade routes, and structure. Considering the distances, calculated to be over 1700 km [1056 miles], the timber's dimensions, road transport with all the possible obstacles along the way, floating the timber down rivers and finally shipping it across the sea, the logistic organization of the Romans must have been formidable, Bernabeil added. Moreover, the wood was used to make the foundation of the villa which further extends the study on the usage of wood, he concluded.

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