Low Ham
Roman villa 10.4 km NW of Ilchester, discovered in 1938 and excavated 1945-55. Beginning with a modest house built ca. A.D. 200 it was extended in the late 3d c. and again ca. 330 into a large and luxurious complex, with ranges of buildings facing on a courtyard 30 m across. The main interest centers on a mosaic pavement, 3.9 m square, with scenes from the story of Dido and Aeneas (Aen. 1 & 4). It has been suggested that the design was taken from a mosaicist's copybook imported from Africa, but this is disputed and a purely local origin is possible. The pavement is now in Taunton Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHYC.A.R. Radford, Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries 25 (1947) 141-43; id. & H.S.L. Dewar, The Roman Mosaics from Low Ham and East Coker (1964); Dewar, Somerset . . . Queries 27 (1955) 58-61; J.M.C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain (2d ed., 1963) 15-16, 203-5; D. J. Smith in A.L.F. Rivet, ed., The Roman Villa in Britain (1969) 90, 117.
A.L.F. RIVET