Villa rustica

Roman country estates are among the most frequent and best-known objects that reveal themselves as negative crop marks in early summer. The following example of a villa rustica on a meadow area, in which lucerne was sown to improve the soil, shows that these are not only particularly beautiful to see in grain fields.

The photo was taken on 04.07.2017 from a height of approx. 45m. You can see the southeast-facing main building with its two typical corner risaliths and an outbuilding.

Nachtrag 2018: Addendum 2018: In early summer 2018, the site was surveyed several times, as the field was cultivated with winter wheat this year. As hoped, the manor house already stood out on 13.05.2018 due to clear, negative crop marks. In contrast to the previous year, 2 additional outbuildings were now visible, including a probable temple.

Villa rustica as negative crop marks in winter wheat

A fine example of how crop marks can also disappear was revealed a month later during the next aerial survey on 14.06.2018: the outbuildings of the villa rustica can only be discerned with difficulty; the wall features of the main building, which were still so clear in May, are either no longer discernible or stand out blurredly in the grain.

Again a month later on 19.07.2018 the maturation of the wheat had progressed. The crop marks again show all 4 buildings on the site, but nowhere near the detail seen in the May photos.