MUSINGS ON MOSAICS

Explainer volunteer Toby Charkin tells how a visit to Lullingstone Roman Villa inspired him to apply to do a masterʼs degree in Ancient History.

Ithink many of us started to rethink what we wanted from life during the Covid-19 lockdowns. I certainly did. I was happily working as publishing director for a scientific publisher in London, with a career of 25 years under my belt. But I had always felt there was something missing. As a child I always loved classical mythology and history. I suppose I was influenced by Indiana Jones discovering mystical ancient treasures and hoped I could be that swashbuckling archaeologist. Well not quite, but nearly (I have not yet bought a whip). Having lived in the Darenth Valley in Kent for the last ten years I decided to revisit Lullingstone Roman Villa on a whim and was so inspired by the friendly staff, amazing site and objects that I applied to volunteer. At the same time, I was looking for a new challenge and decided to go back to university at University College London (UCL) to study for an MA in Ancient History.

How it’s going

I started my course and decided to take a module on Roman Britain. Lullingstone came up several times, which made me realise just how significant it is in terms of the history of Roman Britain. Villa culture, agricultural economics, a pagan nymphaeum, a unique Christian ‘house church’, fabulous jewellery, marble busts (maybe even of a Roman emperor), lead sarcophagi with skeletons, a bath complex and hypocaust, animal paw prints on tiles – Lullingstone has it all. But perhaps most significant for my story is the amazing mosaics and their inscription in Latin. When the opportunity arose, I thought ‘I must write about this’.

So I chose to write one of my essays on how the mosaics at Lullingstone came into being, and all the people and processes that influenced their creation, how they reached their audience and what that audience made of them. In the process, I learned about how mosaics are made and about the classical myths they tell, about the use of public and private space in villas, and about the allusions to writers like Virgil, Ovid, and Martial in the inscription. It also led me to create a modern

Communications Circuit for all the people and processes still influencing how its meaning is created to this day. The maintenance of the site by English Heritage involves staff, volunteers, education officers, local authorities, conservators, cleaners, fundraisers, lighting experts, photographers and website designers, as well as visitors of all ages, who are all constantly reading, reinterpreting, and creating meaning from the mosaics.

Touching the past

My essay concluded with the story of a piece of the mosaic which was stolen by a schoolboy who visited the site many years ago. When he died his daughter returned it. That piece is now used by volunteers to show visitors what tesserae looked and felt like and is the only piece of mosaic that visitors are physically allowed to touch. So, whilst one would never condone such a theft, the outcome has been that visitors today can still touch a little piece of Roman history. ■