Astonishing depictions of dolphins and fish in striking white, red, blue and yellow tiles surprised archaeologists at Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire, English Heritage announced today (13 August), as a remarkable 2000-year-old Roman mosaic was uncovered during excavation at the ancient city. The excavations, originally seeking a possible location for the city’s main Civic Temple, revealed a number of important discoveries including coins, pottery fragments, the mosaic and a possible shrine.

One of the best-preserved examples of a Roman city in Britain, Wroxeter (or Viriconium as it was known) established in the 90s AD, was a thriving city of the Roman Empire, once as large as Pompeii. At its height, the city would have contained over two hundred houses, a civic bath house, marketplace, county hall and judicial centre. Today, a small number of ruined buildings (the Old Work – the largest piece of free-standing Roman wall in the country – and the town’s public baths) are all that remain of the lost city above ground, alongside a museum, and much of the site remains unexcavated.

This recent Wroxeter excavation, a collaborative effort between English Heritage, the University of Birmingham, Vianova Archaeology & Heritage Services, and Albion Archaeology, set out to open a series of evaluation trenches near the city’s forum, a possible location for the main Civic Temple, as indicated by a geophysical survey that revealed a walled precinct. As hoped, the excavation uncovered a large monumental building along the city’s main road, as well as uncovering a shrine or mausoleum within the precinct which may have honoured an important individual in Wroxeter’s earliest history – possibly someone associated with the legionary fortress or perhaps a founding father of the new city. However, archaeologists were also amazed to reveal a beautiful and particularly rare mosaic. Dating to the early 2nd century, soon after the city was established, the mosaic must have been commissioned by a wealthy and important person and depicts dolphins and fish in strikingly bright colours still visible today. A painted plaster wall on one side of the mosaic remarkably also survives to knee height.

Win Scutt, Senior Properties Curator at English Heritage, said: “What a discovery! Although much of Wroxeter is unexcavated, geophysical surveys have helped us understand the layout of the city and we were aware that to the north of the forum there was another large civic building, almost certainly the main civic temple, buried underground. Our excavations were in hope of discovering the walls of this building, but we never suspected we would find a beautiful and intact mosaic, which had lain hidden for thousands of years. This discovery, alongside a large number of small finds such as coins and pottery, will go a long way in helping us to date the various phases of the city and indicate the kinds of activities that were taking place. It’s always an astonishing moment when you uncover a fragment of beauty hiding just below the ground.”

The excavation was a research, training and engagement project. Thirty archaeologists spent a month on site, including twenty student archaeologists and volunteers of all ages. The area of the excavation has now been reburied for its protection and preservation, but the public can visit Wroxeter Roman City’s existing ruins, a reconstructed Roman town house and the museum (which contains artefacts such as figurines of deities, water pipes, glass perfume bottles, and amulets) to learn more about the site’s history.