Rare and important Roman wall plaster excavated in the City

25 April 2007

One of the best collections of Roman painted wall plaster from London has been discovered on a site on Lime Street, on the edge of Leadenhall Market in the City of London by the Museum of London Archaeology Service.  The plaster is from one room in a high status Roman building, probably dating to about 120 AD.

Sophie Jackson, the Museum of London archaeologist who project managed the dig, said:

'This is an amazing discovery because it will allow us to reconstruct the decoration within a Roman London room from the early second century.  It is incredibly rare to have this much decorated plaster and of such high artistic quality.

'The building was destroyed in a fire and demolished, but amazingly large chunks of plaster have survived revealing an elaborate decorative scheme with painted candelabra, fruit and flowers, birds and animals on coloured panels. The room originally had a mosaic floor, but this was removed before the building was demolished.

'The building was just to the east of the Roman forum and basilica, the main market place for London and administrative centre. The excavation has now finished but our experts are working to piece together over 40 crates of plaster to recreate the decoration.'

This image features on the cover of the recently relaunched London Archaeologist.