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New research from the University of Leicester has revealed something remarkable about one of Britain’s most significant Roman archaeological discoveries. The celebrated Ketton mosaic in Rutland doesn’t depict scenes from Homer’s famous Iliad as initially believed, but instead illustrates an alternative “long-lost” version of the Trojan War first popularized by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. This groundbreaking finding, published in the journal Britannia, fundamentally changes our understanding of cultural connections between Roman Britain and the wider classical Mediterranean world.
The mosaic was discovered in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown by local resident Jim Irvine, who noticed unusual pottery fragments while walking through his family’s fields near Ketton. What followed was a major excavation by University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) that uncovered not just the mosaic, but an entire Roman villa complex of exceptional national importance. The site has since been designated a Scheduled Monument by Historic England.
The whole mosaic of four panels. (ULAS)
Decoding the Dramatic Scenes
The Ketton mosaic depicts three dramatic panels showing the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector in pivotal moments of their legendary confrontation. The first panel shows their epic duel, the second captures the gruesome aftermath as Achilles drags Hector’s body behind his chariot, and the third illustrates the ransom scene where King Priam literally weighs his son’s body against gold. It’s this final scene that provided the crucial clue revealing the mosaic’s true origins, according to Phys.org.
Section of Panel 1 of the Ketton Mosaic shows Hector, prince of Troy, in his chariot. (©ULAS). A second-century Roman coin from Ilium in Turkey, labelled ‘Hector’, is an earlier example of the same design. (RPC 4.2.120 @ RPC online).(ULAS)
Dr. Jane Masséglia, lead author of the research and Associate Professor in Ancient History at the University of Leicester, explained the breakthrough in identification.
“In the Ketton Mosaic, not only have we got scenes telling the Aeschylus version of the story, but the top panel is actually based on a design used on a Greek pot that dates from the time of Aeschylus, 800 years before the mosaic was laid,” she revealed.
The key difference lies in how Hector’s body is ransomed – while Homer’s Iliad describes the exchange using counted talents of gold, the mosaic shows Priam loading gold vessels onto scales to match his son’s physical weight.
This specific iconography aligns precisely with the plot of Phrygians, a lost tragedy by Aeschylus that dramatized the same events but with different details. While Homer’s version has been preserved and studied for millennia, Aeschylus’s telling survives only through fragmentary references and artistic depictions like this mosaic. The Romans would have been familiar with multiple retellings of the Trojan War, and the villa owner clearly enjoyed displaying a more exclusive, intellectually sophisticated version of the myth.
Panel two shows Achilles dragging Hector’s body behind his chariot while King Priam begs for mercy. (ULAS/Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
Mediterranean Design Networks in Roman Britain
Perhaps even more fascinating than identifying the story itself is what the mosaic reveals about artistic connections across the Roman Empire. Dr. Masséglia’s meticulous analysis uncovered that the mosaic’s design cleverly combines artistic patterns that had been circulating for hundreds of years across the ancient Mediterranean world. The first panel, showing Hector in his chariot, replicates the design of a second-century Roman coin from Ilion in present-day Turkey. The composition of the second panel mirrors almost exactly an Attic red-figure vase dated to around 490 BC, now housed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Even seemingly minor decorative elements trace back to ancient sources. The snake coiled beneath the chariot horses derives from that same 500-year-old Greek vase design. The central weighing scene finds its antecedent in a first-century AD silver jug from Roman Gaul, part of the famous Berthouville Treasure. “Once I’d noticed the use of standard patterns in one panel, I found other parts of the mosaic were based on designs that we can see in much older silverware, coins and pottery, from Greece, Turkey, and Gaul,” Masséglia explained to The Independent.
This network of cross-references demonstrates that craftspeople working in Roman Britain during the third or fourth century AD were fully integrated into a vast professional network. “Romano-British craftspeople weren’t isolated from the rest of the ancient world, but were part of this wider network of trades passing their pattern catalogs down the generations,” Masséglia emphasized. “At Ketton, we’ve got Roman British craftsmanship but a Mediterranean heritage of design.”
Panel three shows King Priam loading scales to match the weight of his son Hector. (ULAS)
Expert Reactions and Cultural Implications
Jim Irvine expressed his excitement about the research findings.
“Jane’s detailed research into the Rutland mosaic imagery reveals a level of cultural integration across the Roman world that we’re only just beginning to appreciate,” he noted. “It’s a fascinating and important development that suggests Roman Britain may have been far more cosmopolitan than we often imagine.”
Rachel Cubitt, Post-Excavation Coordinator at Historic England, praised the collaborative research. “This fascinating new research offers a more nuanced picture of the interests and influences of those who may have lived there, and of people living across Roman Britain at this time,” she commented. The choice to display such an erudite version of Greek mythology would have conveyed intellectual prestige and connection to classical learning.
Professor Hella Eckhardt of the University of Reading called it “an exciting piece of research” that demonstrates “the ways in which the stories of the Greek heroes Achilles and Hector were transmitted not just through texts but through a repertoire of images created by artists working in all sorts of materials.” The meticulous reconstruction work by Jen Browning of ULAS proved crucial in deciphering fire-damaged sections, tracing the outline of original tesserae to confirm the scales scene and complete the identification.
The findings reshape scholarly understanding of Roman Britain’s place within the broader Mediterranean cultural sphere, demonstrating direct participation in sophisticated artistic and intellectual networks spanning the entire Roman world.
Top image: The ransom of Hector (Panel 3, top) in the Rutland mosaic. Source: University of Leicester Archaeological Services
By Gary Manners
References
Carvajal, G., 2025. The Roman mosaic discovered in the Roman villa of Rutland contains a lost version of the Trojan War. La Brújula Verde. Available at: https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/12/the-roman-mosaic-discovered-in-the-roman-villa-of-rutland-contains-a-lost-version-of-the-trojan-war-that-does-not-appear-in-the-iliad/
Masséglia, J. et al. 2025. Troy Story: The Ketton Mosaic, Aeschylus, and Greek Mythography in Late Roman Britain. Britannia. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X25100342
Wootton Cane, N., 2025. Archaeologists unlock secrets of ‘remarkable’ Rutland mosaic. The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rutland-ketton-mosaic-archaeologists-study-b2878631.html
