From Julius Caesar to Orange Julius, an ancient Roman mosaic has been discovered in a shopping center in Colchester, Essex, Britain’s first Roman capital. The mosaic was first discovered during the construction of the Red Lion Yard shopping center in 1988, but like many fragments of the Roman colony in Britain, it was simply covered up due to a lack of resources to carry out a proper archaeological investigation.
“We recorded it at the time (drawn and plotted its precise location),” said Philip Crummy, director of the Colchester Archaeological Trust. Hyperallergic. “It was then covered over.”
Colchester Borough Council and the Lion Walk Shopping Precinct have decided to reveal their hidden treasure after all these years, currently hidden under the pavement outside a vape shop. The plan, which is expected to be completed by the end of summer 2023, is to uncover the historic tiling as fully as possible and display it in situ under a layer of glass.
“On the two recent occasions when we revealed glimpses of the buried mosaic, as you can imagine, there was a lot of public interest from passers-by,” Crummy said. The mosaic’s appeal as an attraction has not been lost on the city council or shopping center and has sparked new efforts to uncover and safely display the tiling – a process hampered by the need to redirect modern services running above, including a high voltage power line.
As Britain’s oldest recorded town and the country’s first Roman town, Colchester has a history of popping mosaics during routine building work. The Archaeological Trust has records of over 40 mosaics discovered in the city over the years. A complete mosaic found and excavated in the 1970s is on display in the Colchester Castle Museum and yet another is exposed to Gallery of the first site.
“It comes from just one town in Britain – perhaps the best known of them all,” Crummy said.
The current effort will likely only partially show the actual tile, as it’s suspected that only the fragment remains that was already revealed, but Crummy thinks it’s possible to reconstruct his overall plan and burn the rest of the mosaic on the surface of the surrounding floor tiles. If all goes well, you can tell your friends to meet you at the mosaic the next time you want to go shopping in Colchester.
