slaying the bull, found at the
Walbrook site and put on display at the
Museum of London (as of 2024 closed for redevelopment) The site was excavated by
W. F. Grimes, director of the
Museum of London, and
Audrey Williams 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 had 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. found in the 1954 excavations Among the sculptures the archaeologists found was a head of
Mithras himself, recognizable by his
Phrygian cap. The base of the head is tapered to fit a torso, which was not preserved. Artefacts found in
Walbrook in 1889 probably came from the Mithraeum, according to the archaeologist
Ralph Merrifield, although this was not identified at the time. One was a marble relief, tall, 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 which may be translated "Ulpius Silvanus, veteran soldier of the
Second Augustan Legion, in fulfilment of a vow, makes this altar [as the result of] a vision" or "Ulpius Silvanus, veteran of the Second Legion Augusta, fulfilled his vow having become (a Mithraist) at
Orange". 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 AD 307–310 at the site 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". Their work recovered more than 14,000 items, including a large assembly of tools. The varied objects are thought to have been brought to the site in landfills and soils collected elsewhere and laid down to improve the marshy banks of the
River Walbrook during the rebuilding of London after the
Boudican revolt of AD 60 or 61. The waterlogged soil conditions in this location preserved even organic material like leather shoes and an assembly of over 400 wooden writing tablets, collectively known as the
Bloomberg tablets. The tablets originally held a layer of dark wax and messages were scratched into the wax with a stylus that revealed the paler wood underneath. The wax has perished, but the words were reconstructed from scratch marks left in the wood. Among the messages is the oldest financial document from London, dated AD 57, and two addresses from AD 62 and AD 70 containing the earliest mention of London. == Relocation history ==