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The fragment from the Roman fish bottle, the only one of its type ever discovered in Britain. Photograph: National Trust/Rod Kirkpatrick/F Stop Press 

Find sheds fresh light on wealth and influence of ex-inhabitants of National Trust property
A fragment from a Roman bottle so exceptionally rare that it has taken glass experts from around the world two years to conclusively identify it has been discovered thousands of miles from where it was made.

The discovery at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire of the small shard of patterned green glass, part of an 1,800-year-old fish bottle, has astonished archaeologists.

Nothing like it has ever been found in Britain. It would have been made in an area around the Black Sea in what is now Ukraine and was possibly used to hold exotic perfume.

For it to travel all the way from the Black Sea to the Cotswolds sheds new light on the wealth and influence of the people who occupied Chedworth, a National Trust property regarded as one of the grandest Roman villas in Britain.

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