Dai Morgan Evans obituary
In 2010 the archaeologist Dai Morgan Evans, who has died aged 73 after suffering from cancer, designed a replica Roman villa in Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, and advised six craftsmen on how to build it. The project, shown on the Channel 4 TV series Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, used only tools and materials known in the 4th century AD, and drew on a manual from 25BC by the Roman architect Vitruvius and what had been learned from excavating an original building on the site.
The challenges in completing the two-storey structure included erecting a massive timber frame, regulating the under-floor air flows of a hypocaust heating system, laying mosaic floors so that the tiles would stick and setting up a bath house with a plunge pool. The following year the Roman town house at English Heritage's Wroxeter Roman City site opened its doors to visitors, including a great number of school groups. Walls of one room were left in a variety of stages of completion, so people could see what lay beneath the rendering and fresco finishes, and gain some idea of Roman ingenuity.
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