Roman Bath History

One of the things that was heartily recommended to me was a trip to Bath. Bath is a relatively small town, but it has one very special feature that have drawn people to it for centuries - the only hot spring in Great Britain.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a Celt and you find a place where the water is bubbling out of the ground, hot and making a jade green pool in the middle of a rust red landscape (from minerals) and on cold days you can't even see the water for the mist (steam) that surrounds it. How would you explain this phenomenon? The ancient Celts decided that clearly a God lived in the spring, and they were fairly certain it was Sulis, the goddess of war.

Around 100AD, when the Romans arrived, they came upon the hot spring and were equally taken with it. Having no better explanation for why hot water would bubble out of the Earth, they accepted that a goddess was living in it, though they named her after their own goddess of war, Minerva. The spring became known as Sulis Minerva and the Romans built a temple and huge bath house on the location using the water from the spring.

The bath house drew Romans from all over the empire and was a center of society in Great Britain for 400 years - however, around 500AD the Roman Empire was under attack, and they called home many of their troops from the farthest reaches of the empire. With no soldiers around, the Visigoths were able to take over and the Romans were pushed out. Unfortunately, the Visigoths were not terribly attracted to the idea of bathing, and they didn't understand the innovations in the bath nor the upkeep that was necessary, so it eventually clogged with silt, became overrun with plants, collapsed and was eventually built over.

The pattern of civilizations building in Bath, collapsing in ruin and then being built over again occurred at least one or two times more. Every time, however, the spring would make its way to the surface again and would attract people to it. At one point a huge abbey was built near the spring using the cut stones they found in the ruins.

***

During the Victorian era, a number of people with homes near the cathedral started complaining of hot water seeping into their basements. In exploring the source of the problem, workers discovered these giant lead sheets. This, of course, peaked their curiosity and they started to explore further. A well known architect of the time was called in to help with the excavation and when they realized how extensive it was, he convinced the city to buy up the houses above the site and do a full excavation. The Roman Baths were found below the city (under about 6 meters of rubble, earth, etc). The Victorians restored parts of the bath and built around it so visitors could see into the baths. Excavation continues, but there are so many important buildings around the baths that were built in later years that the full area can't be excavated. They just recently found evidence of a second temple under the abbey (seen in the photo), but obviously they can't get permission to tear the abbey down. I got the sense that this is really causing agony for the archaeologists.