AD 120 · Deva Victrix — Chester · Researched
Welcome to AD 120.
Not a documentary. Not a game. A historical experience.
Arrival mode
Who are you?
You are a potter. Age 26. Living at A workshop street outside the fortress walls near Chester.
You wake before dawn on a straw mattress. The kiln has been cooling overnight and needs checking before anything else happens today.
Now explore your day
- Before dawn — unload the kiln. Count the losses. Cracked pots are the difference between a good week and a bad one.
- Morning — carry finished bowls to the market street. Army contracts pay reliably; civilians haggle.
- Midday — bread, cheese, watered wine. Food is bought daily because storing it is difficult.
- Afternoon — throw the next batch, wedge clay, repair the wheel bearing.
- Evening — the bath house, because it is warm, social, and the only reliable hot water you have.
- Night — dark at sunset. Oil lamps are expensive, so most work stops when the light does.
Everyday life · historical layers
What we know, what was written, what we think
Homes
Excavated strip buildings at Chester and Wroxeter: narrow street frontage, workshop at the front, living space behind, hearths and beaten earth floors.
Food
Carbonised grain, animal bone assemblages dominated by cattle and pig, olive oil and fish sauce amphorae, querns for hand-milling.
Work
Kiln sites, tool finds, makers' stamps on tile and pottery, worn tool surfaces indicating handedness and technique.
Medicine
Surgical instrument sets, eye-salve stamps, skeletal evidence of healed fractures, arthritis and dental wear.
Roads and transport
Surviving agger and metalling, milestones, rutted stone surfaces, ox-cart fittings and horse gear.
Religion
Altars, curse tablets from Bath, household shrine niches, votive deposits in rivers and wells.
Children
Toys, feeding vessels, infant burials under floors, skeletal indicators of childhood illness and malnutrition.
Weather and warmth
Hypocaust systems, thick woollen textile fragments, charcoal and fuel deposits, waterlogged environmental data.
Living museum
Walk through it
Roman villa
Workshop
Garden
Bath house
Marketplace
Military fort
Farm
Harbour
Time compare
The achievements and the limitations of each era, side by side.
Roman kitchen
↓ Modern kitchen
Fire, hand-milling and daily shopping versus refrigeration and stored food.
Roman road
↓ Modern motorway
Both engineered for supply and control. One moves at 5km/h, one at 110.
Roman doctor
↓ Modern hospital
Comparable surgical skill. No understanding of infection.
Roman farm
↓ Modern greenhouse
Season-bound yields versus controlled climate and year-round growing.
Bath house
↓ Bathroom
Public, social and heated by slave-fed furnaces versus private and instant.
Soundscape
Environmental sound only. No music unless it would have been heard.
Historical garden
What was growing
Coriander
Cooking and preserving
Seeds recovered from Roman-period deposits across Britain.
Fennel
Cooking and digestive remedy
An introduction that stayed.
Rue
Medicinal
Named repeatedly in Roman medical writing.
Dill
Cooking and infant remedies
Found in urban waterlogged deposits.
Grape vine
Wine and fruit
Vine pollen and pips exist in Britain; scale of production is debated.
Walnut
Food and oil
A Roman introduction to Britain.
A day in the life