#FindsFriday Painted Plaster

This week for #FindsFriday we’re going to be looking at Roman wall plaster, with examples coming from our excavations at the Sixth Form College in Colchester.

Romans used a technique known as fresco when it came to decorating their houses – painting directly onto wet plaster. This technique has proven to be extremely durable with famous examples coming from Pompeii!

At the Sixth Form excavations in 2011 we discovered a layer of demolition debris, likely from multiple Roman houses, which contained over 1,300 fragments of painted wall plaster! The fragments had many different colours including red, purple, yellow, olive/green, pink and brown. Red and purple stripes appear to be more common to the west of the foundation trenches excavated, while the central and eastern parts of the trenches were dominated by shades of red and olive grey/grey. Yellow, brown and green were more common to the eastern end of the trenches.

Earlier works on the site in 2005 produced even more painted plaster, some with painted architectural and mythological elements including snakes. Let us know if you’d want to see another post detailing these! 

For more information check out CAT Report 644 at: http://cat.essex.ac.uk/all-reports.html