Metal detectorist's 'feeling' leads to massive Roman settlement discovery in popular tourist hotspot

In a press release shared with Fox News Digital, Cotswold Archaeology announced the discovery of the Roman settlement in Gloucestershire, a county within the Cotswold region of England. (See the video at the top of this article.) 

The settlement dates back 2,000 years; it was inhabited between the first and second centuries A.D. The excavation near Willersey was done as a joint effort with Historic England.

Among the recent discoveries were a Roman villa, remains of limestone buildings - and at least three Iron Age ring ditches.

Excavators also found the remnants of Roman building materials, including ceramic roofing, painted wall plaster and box flue tiles.

"Once Historic England has the final report on the archaeological work, it will be able to consider whether to recommend to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) that the site be protected as a scheduled monument," the statement said.

The recent excavation was all thanks to an amateur metal detectorist who found two iron Roman cavalry swords in the same location in March 2023.

"The X-rays show that the swords were constructed differently: one has evidence of decorative pattern welding running down the center, whereas the other sword is plain," Cotswold Archaeology explained in its statement.

"The pattern-welded sword would have been more expensive to produce and therefore higher status."

The long swords likely belonged to cavalrymen in the second century, the organization said.

"They are contemporary with the villa," its statement added. "How they came to be there, though, is currently unknown."

Near Willersley, archaeologists also uncovered a burial of a skeleton that still retained an iron band around its arm. 

A horse skull was also found - but whether the remains date back to the Roman settlement is still unknown.

In a statement, Cotswold Archaeology onsite project officer Peter Busby said he was "very proud" of the achievement.

"We turned a plowed field, the swords, and geophysical anomalies into the story of a settlement spanning hundreds of years - the first stage in telling the history of these fields and their cavalry swords," the archaeologist said.

Glenn Manning, the metal detectorist who found the swords, described his experience as "amazing."

The Romans occupied the British Isles from 43 A.D. until 410 A.D., and many remnants of the era still emerge today.