Oh, to be alive when Romans revelled in Londinium

MOLA archaeologists at work on mosaic unearthed in Southwark
MOLA Andy Chopping
John Darlington22 February 2022
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As an archaeologist, the thing I love about London is that wherever you are in this extraordinary city you will be part of story that goes back thousands of years. The recent discovery of the largest Roman mosaic to be found in London in 50 years beautifully (literally!) illustrates my point.

Museum of London Archaeology excavating ahead of the redevelopment of a site in the shadow of The Shard have uncovered an intricately tiled floor, decorated with thousands of red, white and black tesserae.

Panels made up of lotus flowers and a design known as Solomon’s knot surrounded by geometric patterns once made up the floor of a very smart triclinium — a Roman dining room. And why would important Roman visitors be eating out in splendour in Southwark? Because it was part of a mansio, a form of upmarket “motel” where officials and military officers would stay as they visited Britannia’s largest city just across the river — Londinium.

Doubtless nearby there would have been sleeping chambers, stables for the horses, temples for worship and bathhouses to freshen up in — all that a weary second-century CE traveller might possibly need. The other thing I love about London is that this discovery not only reveals the amazing depth of history that defines the city, but its international links.

Those Roman dignitaries would have been travelling across the province of Britannia and Europe, making their way between important cities on missions of trade and diplomacy, much as they do today. And it was not just the rich and famous, the artisans who made the mosaics probably made an identical one found in Trier, Germany, and were part of a travelling band of mosaicists plying their specialist trade across the great cities of the Roman Empire.

Some 1,200 years after our Roman travellers were eating in luxury in Southwark, the very same area hosted Chaucer’s pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. And today The Shard is one of the city’s iconic places to eat and stay. Here then is yet another tale of London’s rich continuity.

John Darlington is executive director of World Monuments Fund Britain

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