It was the fourth-largest Roman settlement in Britain, with a population of more than 15,000 during its heyday around 2,000 years ago.
Remarkably, Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire is still being excavated – and the ancient location continues to spill its secrets.
Archeologists have uncovered a remarkable floor mosaic depicting an underwater scene at a former townhouse at the city, which was called Viroconium Cornoviorum.
Described as ‘an aquarium frozen in stone’, the mosaic depicts dolphins and fish using intricately-arranged white, red, blue and yellow tiles.
The newly-uncovered artwork was likely commissioned by ‘a wealthy and important person’ who lived at the building.
What is Wroxeter Roman City?
Wroxeter is a small Shropshire village, but just north of the village are the ruins of a former Roman city.
The city, known by the Romans as Viroconium Cornoviorum, once spanned around 180 acres, experts think.
It was established in around AD 90 and was a thriving city of the Roman Empire in Britain.
Viroconium Cornoviorum was inhabited until the mid-5th century, not long after the Roman withdrawal from Britain (around AD 410).
The former Roman city, Viroconium Cornoviorum, once spanned around 180 acres, but today is just a series of ruins located just north of the modern-day village of Wroxeter.
New excavations were done in July by English Heritage, the University of Birmingham, Vianova Archaeology & Heritage Services, and Albion Archaeology.
Win Scutt, senior properties curator at English Heritage, called the discovery of the mosaic an ‘astonishing moment’.
‘We never suspected we would find a beautiful and intact mosaic, which had lain hidden for thousands of years,’ he said.
‘It’s always an astonishing moment when you uncover a fragment of beauty hiding just below the ground.
‘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.’
Dr Roger White, an archaeologist at the University of Birmingham, called the survival of the mosaic for 2,000 years ‘extraordinary’.
‘The new knowledge is startling evidence for the wealth and confidence of the founders of the city,’ Dr White said.
‘This is breathtakingly emphasised by the extraordinary survival of a multi-coloured mosaic and substantial surviving frescoed walls built in the first few decades of the city’s existence.
‘It is extremely rare to find both a mosaic and its ᴀssociated wall plaster, and nothing like it has ever been found at Wroxeter before.’
Viroconium Cornoviorum was established in around AD 90 and was a thriving city of the Roman Empire in Britain, once as large as Italy’s Pompeii.
Researchers think the mosaic dates to the early 2nd century AD, fairly soon after the city was established – a matter of decades.
It made up part of the floor of a large and previously unknown townhouse, probably owned by a wealthy and powerful family.
The lower parts of the mosaic room’s wall are intact and still bear their original painted plaster, English Heritage says.
