When laborers were working on a trench for a new water main at Fishbourne in 1960, they came across masonry foundations buried beneath the surface. Initially, the foundation stones seemed to be nothing more than ordinary rubble that had always been exposed when workers were building something; however, archaeologists quickly realized that the structure was far from ordinary, as it came to be called 'Fishbourne Roman Palace', the largest Roman civil settlement found in England until then.
This chance discovery soon evolved into a huge archaeological dig that would span several years. According to the University of Southampton, the discoveries made over nine seasons of excavation compelled historians to revisit the concept of Roman power and high culture in ancient Britain. This was important, given the prevailing perception of Roman Britain as dominated by forts, roads, and a military presence.
Fishbourne offered something completely different. The magnitude of the site suggested that the Romans' domination in Britain could manifest itself in luxurious architecture, lavish ceremony, foreign cultural influences, and upper-class domestic settings to a degree that had not previously been considered feasible so far from the Roman Empire proper.
As reported by Bournemouth University, the villa at Fishbourne remains the largest Roman civil residence found in Britain, with floor space exceeding that of Buckingham Palace. This comparison explains well why the discovery came as such a shock to the archaeological world. The masonry unearthed in Sussex did not belong to some remote villa or country farmhouse.
