The couch, whose shape foreshadows the Christian images of the Last Supper, occupies a large part of the room. At the back of the large room, one sees a door ajar and a window with a sliding curtain that probably looked into the inner courtyard of the house. The scene shows nine guests, more or less dressed, lying on a large couch in the shape of a horseshoe (known as a stibadium and used especially during the last centuries of the Imperial period), around which seven servants are busy ensuring that the banquet participants are perfectly at ease. This work, which certainly adorned a floor in the villa of a wealthy private citizen living in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, was placed in a room intended for symposia. It features a scene from the daily life of the Roman aristocracy, a very realistic and lively symposium (banquet). “It has been a privilege to work on such a large site where the Roman archaeology is largely undisturbed by later activity,” said Antonietta Lerz, who is supervising the site for MOLA, in the statement.This mosaic is impressive for its outstanding color and iconographic palette, as well as for its size and state of preservation. A bit of decorative wall plaster also found at the site during excavations. The smaller panel features flowers and geometric forms that strongly resemble a mosaic uncovered in Trier, Germany, and supports the idea that high-demand mosaic artists of the time likely traveled around the known world plying their trade. David Neal, a former archaeologist and an expert in Roman mosaic, has attributed the design to a local enclave of mosaicists who worked in London known as the ‘Acanthus group.’ According to a press release from MOLA, Dr. Lotus flowers, embellished half-moon shapes, and a pattern known as “Solomon’s knot” are all features of the floor mosaics. The largest panel includes flowers framed by geometric guilloché banding, a decorative motif that employs complex, intertwining lines. The mosaics are decorative panels comprised of thousands of small colored and black and white tiles set into a floor of larger red pieces. “We are committed to celebrating the heritage of all of our regeneration sites, so it’s brilliant that we’ve been able to unearth a beautiful and culturally-important specimen in central London that will be now preserved so that it can be enjoyed by generations to come,” Nowne added in MOLA’s press release. Henrietta Nowne, senior development Manager at U+I, a real estate development firm working to build the site in cooperation with Transport for London (TfL), said that “the Liberty of Southwark site has a rich history, but we never expected a find on this scale or significance.” Location of the Liberty of Southwark site in Roman London (detail) (© MOLA reproduced with permission from Ordnance Survey) The mosaics are thought to be part of residences built between 72 and 160 CE as part of the Roman city of Londinium, founded around 50 CE following the Roman invasion of Britain led by Emperor Claudius. As a detailed timeline shows, the site has been subject to British rule and development since 1107 CE, but it was previously an outpost at the fringes of the Roman Empire. Unearthed by archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), the well-preserved mosaic is the largest to be found in London in half a century. This week, in what is being hailed as “a once-in-a-lifetime find,” a nearly complete Roman floor mosaic was discovered during a planning excavation for the construction of the Liberty of Southwark - a forthcoming mixed-use residential and cultural district in the oldest area of London. We all muddle through life with the dim awareness that our daily goings and doings are preceded by thousands of years of human activity, but it is only rarely that we encounter tangible evidence of this ancient history. MOLA archaeologists at work on the mosaic unearthed in Southwark (all images ©MOLA and Andy Chopping courtesy MOLA)
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