History books may have to be rewritten after one of the region's largest Romano-British settlements was unearthed during an excavation near Ipplepen.

The remains help make the location – close to the A381 Totnes Road, which has also yielded material confirming earlier Bronze and Iron Age habitation – among the country's most important sources of new historical data.

The dig, funded by the University of Exeter, The Portable Antiquities Scheme, Earthwatch Institute, the British Museum and Devon County Council, began earlier this month and was due to be completed today.