Alison Francis
Senior science journalist
Watch: the fine art of an exquisite 2,000 year-old Roman jigsaw
Archaeologists have pieced together thousands of fragments of 2,000-year-old wall plaster to reveal remarkable frescoes that decorated a luxurious Roman villa.
The shattered plaster was discovered in 2021 at a site in central London that’s being redeveloped, but it’s taken until now to reconstruct this colossal jigsaw puzzle.
The frescoes are from at least 20 walls of the building, with beautifully painted details of musical instruments, birds, flowers and fruit.
The art is revealing more about the affluence of the area where they were found – described by the team as the “Beverly Hills of Roman London”.
Tony Jolliffe/BBC News
Tony Jolliffe/BBC News
This fresco covered one wall of the villa – there are at least 19 others
There are also clues about who the artists were: one fragment is scored with the Latin word Fecit, which means “has made this” – but the piece where the name should be is missing.
The Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) team still hope the vital piece will be found as they sift through the fragments.
“It’s one of the biggest – if not the biggest – assemblages of Roman wall plaster and paintings we’ve ever found in Roman London,” said Han Li from Mola.
Tony Jolliffe/BBC News
The art shows local plants such as mistletoe
The largest of the frescoes, measuring about 5m by 3m, has a lower section of pale pink, dotted with specks of paint to imitate marble. Above are rich yellow panels with soft green borders.
The wall paintings are adorned with candelabras, stringed instrumen
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