The Conservation of Romano-British Painted Plaster

Abstract

ANY hundreds of fragments of painted plaster have been recovered from Roman buildings excavated in Britain during the past 2oo years or so. They are preserved in museum collections, and many of the pieces have been drawn or photographed, and described in some detail in the accounts of excavation. Useful summaries of many of these discoveries have been given by Lethaby,' Liversidge,2 Toynbee3 and others, the first mentioned, however, dealing specifically with material found in London. Buildings soon decayed after the end of the Roman occupation. Some, no doubt, were deliberately dismantled for their valuable materials, particularly the roof-tiles. Buildings situated north of the Alps, or north of the frost line, as in Britain and other parts of Northern Europe, suffered frost damage. During successive winters when rain and frost penetrated the already dilapidated buildings, any plaster still remaining on the walls and ceilings would have fallen in a multitude of fragments. Occasionally portions of the painted plaster on the lower parts of walls have been found still in position to a height of several feet protected by an accumulation of debris piled against them. A very early instance of this was discovered at the Roman villa at Comb End, Gloucester, as far back as 1779. A considerable amount of wall-plaster in one room was found in position on a wall about 2o feet long. An illustration of this is given, fortunately, by Lysons,4 showing it to include the dado and part of the panels above it, displaying the feet and pieces of the draperies of several human figures. Only rarely have decorated walls been found in Britain, standing to a height of much more than 5-6 feet above floor-level. This has usually occurred in basement rooms and cellars, which must have been filled quite quickly with earth and debris, sometimes deliberately, or in the lower rooms of buildings on downward slopes which could have been more readily buried than the upper rooms. Such instances were revealed during excavations started in 1949 at Lullingstone,5 and