Mosaic buried for thousands of years discovered by archaeologists

CNN
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A beautiful, remarkably well-preserved mosaic that was “hidden for thousands of years” has been discovered by archaeologists in north-west England.

The mosaic, which features fish and dolphins, was discovered in the Roman town of Wroxeter. The fourth largest city in Britain, which was almost as large as Pompeii in its heyday, its ruins now survive as an archaeological and educational site about 50 miles west of Birmingham.

Still displaying its brilliant white, red, blue and yellow colors, the mosaic is the first discovered at Wroxeter since 1859, according to a press release from Vianova Archaeology, which was involved in the dig.

It was probably in the dining room of a wealthy person or city official used to “entertaining rich guests” who was “Determined to impress people with this fine mosaic,” Win Scutt, senior property curator at English Heritage, which runs the site, told CNN.

Scutt added that archaeologists cannot be entirely sure of its function because they only had a “glimpse” of it.

“It’s not just a self-indulgent thing,” Scutt added of the mosaic. “I think a lot of it is about external display, about your position,” he said, adding that the mosaic was “meant to be seen by other people.”

A six-colour mosaic, which requires stones to be imported from outside the local area, and one depicting such patterns has never before been found in Wroxeter, said Roger White, an archaeologist at the University of Birmingham.

“It’s very much in keeping with the taste of the time, so this is someone who knows about fashion and what to put on your mosaics, they’re culturally attuned,” White added.

The discovery of such a mosaic, especially one dating from the early 2nd century, was an unexpected boon for archaeologists. When the dig began, they expected to uncover only finds from the 4th century because they are prohibited from digging through the remains because of the historical significance of the site, Scutt said.

“(Archaeology) will be multi-layered,” he explained. “It’s going to be city upon city because the city lasted at least 300 years, so there’s a lot of levels and we’ve only been able to get down to the top level.”

The mosaic probably only survived for this long because the room was filled with construction debris to raise its interior, probably sometime in the 3rd or 4th century, which also allowed archaeologists to get to it without digging through other layers.

“Our excavations were in the hope of uncovering the walls of this building, but we never suspected that we would find a beautiful and intact mosaic that had been hidden for thousands of years,” Scutt added in a news release from the charity English Heritage.

The dig, led jointly by Vianova Archaeology, Albion Archaeology, the University of Birmingham and English Heritage, also uncovered a small square shrine or mausoleum, as well as an enormous 50-metre (164-foot) long monumental building that stood on one of Wroxeter’s main streets.

Until now, archaeologists have not been able to precisely date the monumental building because they have not excavated the trenches in which it stands and have no clear theories to explain the presence of such a large building, although Scutt speculates that it may have been ceremonial. structure at first and perhaps later became shops.

“It’s a little early to tell the exact date, but it was clearly a massive building that must have dominated the city center for hundreds of years,” he adds.

These latest discoveries add to the history of Wroxeter, which researchers have determined contained more than 200 houses, a civic bath, a forum, a town hall and a judicial centre. It was founded in the mid-1st century as a legionary fortress before the soldiers moved in and the old citadel continued to grow into a flourishing city.

Today, its rural setting has shielded it from modern development, meaning “you have a great level of preservation in the middle of a Roman city that you don’t find anywhere else in the country,” Scutt said.

“So Wroxeter was special even before the mosaic was found,” he added.