Pompeii of the North-Roman Londinium

"Bloomberg Tablets" found in a London Parking Lot

2010-2014. Just yards from the River Thames – in London’s financial district – archaeologists have found coins, pottery, shoes, lucky charms, and an amber Gladiator amulet which date back almost 2,000 years.Even objects and structures made of wood and leather – which normally rarely stand the test of time – have been discovered, leading archaeologists to dub the site “the Pompeii of the north.”¹

Over 400 writing tablets were excavated between 2010 and 2014 in a car park on the site of the Bloomberg's new European headquarters.² These date back to the earliest phases of the Roman occupation in the decades after the Claudian invasion of AD 43.³

Tablets vary in content, including the oldest financial document from the city of London (dating to 8 January 57 AD), about 3 to 4 years before it being destroyed by Boudica.⁴

The discovery was the largest and earliest collection of its kind in Britain.

The tablets were used for note taking, tallying accounts, correspondence, and legal matters. The three-acre site, which was once on the banks of the River Walbrook, is also home to the Temple of Mithras, discovered in the 1950s.⁵ This was one of the most significant events in British archaeological history.

1. POMPEII OF THE NORTH: LONDON’S MOST IMPORTANT EXCAVATION EVER UNEARTHS A ROMAN TREASURE. Archaeology World. January 9, 2020.

2. Roger S.O. Tomlin , 2016. Roman London’s First Voices. Writing Tablets from the Bloomberg Excavations, 2010–14. London: Museum of London Archaeology.

3. Welch, Britannia: The Roman Conquest & Occupation of Britain, 1963.

4. Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith (2016). Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world. New Haven.

5. The Temple of Mithras is the ruin that was discovered in 1954 by archaeologist Professor W.F. Grimes during excavations following the Blitz. The site lies over the course of one of London’s lost rivers, the Walbrook. Nearly 2,000 years ago when Londinium was founded by the Romans, this river marked the limits of their first settlement. In the 3rd century AD, nearly 200 years after the founding of London, a Roman Londoner, built a temple to the god Mithras on this reclaimed ground, next to the river.