{"id":2400,"date":"2025-06-25T00:38:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:41:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:41:55","slug":"huge-roman-frescoes-buried-in-pieces-for-1800-years-uncovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/huge-roman-frescoes-buried-in-pieces-for-1800-years-uncovered\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Roman frescoes buried in pieces for 1,800 years uncovered"},"content":{"rendered":"
Archaeologists\u00a0have assembled the \u201cworld\u2019s most difficult jigsaw puzzle\u201d to reveal huge frescoes that once adorned a luxury villa in\u00a0Roman\u00a0London.<\/div>\n

Fragments of shattered wall plaster, which were discovered during excavations by experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), have been meticulously pieced together to reveal frescoes that covered about 20 internal walls of the building.<\/p>\n

The significance of the plaster pieces was not immediately apparent when they were first unearthed at a site in Southwark. Thousands of fragments were found dumped in a large pit, probably as a result of Roman demolition work carried out prior to 200 AD, MOLA said.<\/p>\n

Han Li, senior building material specialist at MOLA, spent three months painstakingly laying out the fragments in order to restore the massive artwork, which has not been seen for more than 1,800 years.<\/p>\n

It features painted images of fruit, flowers, birds, candelabras and stringed musical instruments popular at the time.<\/p>\n

Another piece shows a crying woman with a hairstyle from the Flavian period (69-96 AD).<\/p>\n

Although the exact purpose of the building has not been established, discoveries at the site suggest it was an affluent area that the MOLA team described as the \u201cBeverly Hills\u201d of Roman Britain.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture>\"The<\/picture><\/div>\n
\n
The fragments were found during excavations of The Liberty site in London’s Southwark district, ahead of a major redevelopment project.<\/span><\/div>\n

MOLA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis has been a \u2018once in a lifetime\u2019 moment, so I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness when I started to lay the plaster out,\u201d said Li in a MOLA press release sent to CNN Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the fragments were very delicate and pieces from different walls had been jumbled together when the building was demolished, so it was like assembling the world\u2019s most difficult jigsaw puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The archaeologists, who are continuing to analyze the plasterwork in further depth, believe the paintings were inspired by designs from other parts of the Roman world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome fragments imitate high status wall tiles, such as red Egyptian porphyry (a crystal speckled volcanic stone) framing the elaborate veins of African giallo antico (a yellow marble). Styles like these have been found north of the river in Londinium, in Colchester, Germany, and Pompeii,\u201d the press release says.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/picture><\/div>\n
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The remains of the tabula ansata<\/span><\/div>\n

MOLA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The identity of one of the painters is also hinted at in a \u201ctabula ansata,\u201d which is a carving of a decorative tablet, which was then used to sign artwork. One plaster piece is scored with the Latin word \u201cfecit,\u201d meaning \u201chas made this.\u201d Unfortunately, the mystery of who the individual was remains as the fragment where their name should be is missing.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the team discovered an etching of an almost complete Greek alphabet, which appears to have been \u201cskillfully scored\u201d by a \u201cproficient writer,\u201d according to the release. It is the only known example of its kind from Roman Britain, but similar examples have been found in Italy.<\/p>\n

The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD and founded Londinium, the basis of modern London, shortly afterwards. Their occupation lasted for almost 400 years, ending in 410 AD.<\/p>\n

This is not the first discovery at the site, which is being redeveloped as The Liberty of Southwark, a complex of offices, homes and shops. Well preserved mosaics that\u00a0once decorated the floor of a large room\u00a0were found there in 2022, while\u00a0a rare Roman mausoleum was unearthed the following year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists\u00a0have assembled the \u201cworld\u2019s most difficult jigsaw puzzle\u201d to reveal huge frescoes that once adorned a luxury villa in\u00a0Roman\u00a0London. Fragments of shattered wall plaster, which were discovered during excavations by experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), have been meticulously pieced together to reveal frescoes that covered about 20 internal walls of the building. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}