fab. new books for the Trust’s library: ‘Roman mosaics of Britain: volume III’

Today (31st October), it was more like Christmas than Hallowe’en here at the Roman circus centre – two fab. new books arrived for the Trust’s library: these are the two books of Roman mosaics of Britain / volume III / south-east Britain, parts I and 2, by David S Neal and Stephen R Cosh. These were published by The Society of Antiquaries of London in 2009 and they are big, beautiful, glossy books. They usually cost £200 but we recently heard that they had been reduced to £50 for the two and we purchased them at once! Essex is included in Part 1 along with Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. ‘Mosaics from the county of Essex’ is on pages 75-152. The catalogue for Essex includes 76 decorated Colchester mosaics, but only 36 of these are illustrated, because the others were not recorded. The books are beautifully illustrated and feature paintings of mosaics by one of the authors. Some Trust images are included in the book, and we are excited to be cited!

The Roman mosaic floors which are known at Colchester include several mosaics or fragments of mosaic which the Trust has uncovered, and some unprovenanced mosaics. Mosaics from the Colchester district include those at Alresford, Brightlingsea, Fingringhoe, Little Oakley, St Osyth, Stanway, and West Mersea. The book also provides a list of finds of loose tesserae in Essex, ie at Layer Breton, Tollesbury, etc. The most recent discovery of a mosaic floor by the Trust was in North Station Road, Colchester in 2001 and 2002, with a fragment of another mosaic in North Station Road in 2003. In 2011, we found fragments of a mosaic during a borehole survey behind the former Williams and Griffin store in the High Street.

The study of mosaics in Colchester uses evidence from our excavations and the authors have produced some very interesting results. Black and white tesserae from the Temple of Claudius may represent the earliest mosaic in Britain (page 80). The remains of a courtyard house which we excavated on our Culver Street site in the 1980s included five mosaic floors, the most in one house in town. There is evidence of craftsmen from the Continent working on mosaic floors in Roman Colchester and, also, evidence of decline in parts of the town by the 4th century. The authors conclude that ‘Some mosaics from Colchester are among the best in Britain’ (page 85).

The images show the front cover of the book and the distribution plan of the mosaics of Colchester, and one of the mosaic floors from the courtyard house on our Culver Street site (painting by Bob Moyes, published in our popular book City of Victory – the story of Colchester, Britain’s first Roman town).

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