Everything about Temple Of Mithras London totally explained
The
Temple of Mithras, Walbrook is a
Roman temple whose ruins were discovered in
Walbrook, a street in the
City of London, during rebuilding work in
1954. It is perhaps the most famous of all twentieth-century Roman discoveries in the City of London.
The site was excavated by
W. F. Grimes, director of the
Museum of London in 1954. The temple, initially hoped to have been an early Christian church, was built in the mid-3rd century and dedicated to
Mithras or perhaps jointly to several deities popular among Roman soldiers. Then it was rededicated, probably to
Bacchus, in the early fourth century. Found within the temple, where they'd been carefully buried at the time of its rededication, were finely-detailed third-century white marble likenesses of
Minerva,
Mercury the
guide of the souls of the dead, and the
syncretic gods Mithras and
Serapis, imported from Italy. There were several coarser locally-made clay figurines of
Venus, combing her hair. The artefacts recovered were put on display in the Museum of London.
Among the sculptures the archaeologists found was a head of
Mithras himself, recognizable from his
Phrygian cap. The base of the head is tapered to fit a torso, which wasn't preserved. Another discovery was a marble relief, 0.53 m, of Mithras in the act of killing the astral bull, the
Tauroctony that was as central to Mithraism as the Crucifixion is to Christianity. On it Mithras is accompanied by the two small figures of the torch-bearing celestial twins of Light and Darkness, Cautes and Cautopates, within the cosmic annual wheel of the
zodiac. At the top left, outside the wheel,
Sol–Helios ascends the heavens in his
biga; at top right Luna descends in her chariot. The heads of two wind-gods,
Boreas and
Zephyros, are in the bottom corners. It bears the inscription
» VLPIVS SILVANVS FACTVS ARAVSIONE EMERITVS LEG II AVG VOTVM SOLVIT
which may be translated "Ulpius Silvanus, veteran soldier of the
Second Augustan Legion, in fulfillment of a vow, makes this altar [asthe result of] a vision"
(External Link
) or "Ulpius Silvanus, veteran of the Second Legion Augusta, fulfilled his vow having become (a Mithraist) at Orange" [Universityof Edinburgh, Classics Department, teaching collection] (Collingwood and Wright 1965, 3).
Nearby were buried heads of the Roman goddess Minerva and a finely-detailed bearded head of Serapis, Jupiter-like in his features but securely recognizable by the grain-basket, the
modius, upon his head, a token of
resurrection.
An inscription dateable 307–310 CE at the site
» PRO SALVTE D N CCCC ET NOB CAES DEO MITHRAE ET SOLI INVICTO AB ORIENTE AD OCCIDENTEM
may be translated "For the Salvation of our lords the four emperors and the noble Caesar, and to the god Mithras, the
Invincible Sun from the east to the west" (Collingwood and Wright 1965, 4)
(External Link).
The temple when it was originally built, would have stood on the east bank of the now covered-over river Walbrook, a key freshwater source in Roman
Londinium. Nearby, in its former streambed, a small square hammered lead sheet was found, on which an enemy of someone named Martia Martina had inscribed her name
backwards and thrown the token into the stream, in a traditional
Celtic way of reaching the gods that has preserved metal tokens in rivers throughout Celtic Europe, from the swords at
La Tène to Roman times. (Compare
wishing well.)
Due to the necessity of building over the site, the whole site was uprooted and moved down the road to Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street, London EC4, where the remains of the temple foundations have been reassembled for display to the public.
Though the present location is at grade, the original
Mithraeum was built partly underground, recalling the cave of
Mithras where the Mithraic epiphany took place.
The temple foundations are very close to other important sites in the city of London including the historic
London Stone, the
Bank of England and
London Wall.
An interim report on the excavation included in W.F. Grimes,
The Excavation of Roman and Mediaeval London Grimes (1968) was superseded by John Shepherd,
The Temple of Mithras, Walbrook (an
English Heritage monograph).
In
2007 the Temple will be relocated to its original location beside the ancient Walbrook River, as part of the demolition of
Bucklersbury House, and the creation of the new Walbrook Square development.
(External Link), designed by
Foster and Partners. (See:
Legal & General Launches Walbrook Square)
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