Excavating a 1700 year-old roof beam at bath-house-2 at Whitehall Roman Villa. A very rare survival. And there are two of them!

They were salvaged from a building older than the bath-house or villa, and then used here in the 3rd century CE to support stone slabs holding back the soil while a bath-house foundation was built into the slope.

Note the hypocaust pilae in the background.

For more about Whitehall Villa see www.whitehallvilla.co.uk