In the early 1800s, the English writer Jane Austen went to dances at the Bath Assembly Rooms, an elegant building in the city of Bath, in southwest England. Under that same floor, a much older story was waiting. Archaeologists have now found coins, pottery, and even part of a Roman soldier’s helmet beneath the building.

Bath has been famous since Roman times. About 2,000 years ago, the Romans built a town there called Aquae Sulis around the area’s natural hot springs, and the remains of their large public baths still attract tourists today. Many centuries later, in the 1700s, Bath became a fashionable place for rich British people to visit. The Assembly Rooms opened in 1771 as a place for parties, dances, and card games. Austen lived in Bath for a few years and wrote about the Assembly Rooms in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

The building was badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War and later rebuilt. Today it belongs to the National Trust, a British charity that looks after historic places. In 2025, the charity started a £20 million (about 38 million Canadian dollars) project to repair the building and turn it into a new visitor attraction. The work gave archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology a rare chance to dig about one metre (three feet) below the building, where nobody had looked before.

There, they found old Roman ditches from the second and third centuries. One ditch alone held about 60 pieces of pottery, pieces of glass, animal bones, roof tiles, three coins, and a small square stone that may have come from a mosaic, a picture made of many tiny stones. Perhaps the most interesting find was a piece of a Roman soldier’s helmet.

The finds show that the Roman town was bigger than experts thought and spread farther west. Marek Lewcun of Wessex Archaeology said the area was probably a suburb, where ordinary people lived and ran small shops. The helmet suggests that soldiers helped build the town and its roads. “The items uncovered tell us a great deal about the people who lived and worked here nearly 2,000 years ago,” said Tatjana LeBoff, the National Trust’s project curator. More Roman remains may be hiding under the streets nearby.

The archaeologists also found objects from Austen’s own time, including curlers for wigs, tobacco pipes, and old wine bottles. The Assembly Rooms are expected to open to visitors again in 2027.

Sources: National Trust, Smithsonian Magazine, Wessex Archaeology

When Jane Austen swept across the dance floor of the Bath Assembly Rooms, she was standing on top of a far older chapter of the city’s history. Archaeologists working beneath the building have now uncovered Roman ditches, coins, pottery, and a fragment of a soldier’s helmet, finds that suggest Roman Bath reached well beyond its previously known limits.

Bath, in southwest England, owes its reputation to the Romans, who built a town called Aquae Sulis around the area’s natural hot springs nearly 2,000 years ago. Their bathing complex remains one of Britain’s best-known historic sites. The city enjoyed a second heyday in the Georgian era, when it became a fashionable retreat for the well-to-do, and the Assembly Rooms opened in 1771 to host their balls, concerts, and card games. Austen, who lived in Bath in the early 1800s and reportedly had mixed feelings about the place, used the rooms as a setting in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

The building was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War and has since been restored. Its current owner, the National Trust, a heritage charity, launched a £20 million (C$38 million) renovation in 2025, which includes conserving the ten original chandeliers and turning the rooms into a new visitor attraction. The project gave archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology their first chance to explore the ground roughly one metre (three feet) beneath the Georgian structure.

What they found pushed the map of Roman Bath westward. The team identified several ditches dating from the second and third centuries. One of them alone yielded around 60 pottery fragments, glass vessels, animal bones, roof tiles, three coins, and a tiny limestone tile known as a tessera, possibly from a mosaic. The standout find was a piece of a Roman military helmet, which hints that soldiers had a hand in building the town and its roads, and perhaps settled in villas nearby after leaving the army.

Marek Lewcun of Wessex Archaeology believes the site was probably a suburb, home to ordinary residents who ran small businesses. “Discovering evidence of Roman history is big news in Bath, which is famed for its Roman heritage,” said Tatjana LeBoff, the National Trust’s project curator. Further remains, the team suspects, may lie beneath neighbouring Georgian streets that have never been excavated.

The dig also turned up relics of Austen’s own era, among them wig curlers, clay tobacco pipes, and wine bottles, small reminders of the fashionable crowd that once filled the ballroom above. The Assembly Rooms are due to reopen to the public in 2027.

Sources: National Trust, Smithsonian Magazine, Wessex Archaeology