THE TEMPLE

The Temple of Mithras (45) was thus set in an area which had a character markedly different from what would have been expected so near to the known centre of Londinium. There was no concentration here of stone buildings of quality but a shallow somewhat depressing valley with a ten­ dency to wetness, and a scatter of timber huts and a sporadic industrial activity. When the temple was built, at a date provisionally fixed towards the end of the second century a . d ., deposits up to 8 feet deep had accumulated on the eastern side of the stream. Lying east-to-west the building itself pro­ jected pier-wise into this raised ground; but at its east end with its vestibule would almost certainly have confronted a street, the predecessor of the modern street, which may be guessed to have followed the lip of the basin, running more or less parallel with the stream itself. While this is not the place in which to attempt a detailed account of the

temple and its exploration, it should be said that only the generous co­ operation of the site-owners, Messrs. Legenland, and the contractors, Messrs. Humphreys, made possible the extended excavation by which the ground was opened up beyond the original cutting to enable the nearcomplete plan of the building to be recovered. The result was to reveal the main body of the temple as a rectangular building 58 J feet long by 26 feet wide, entered from the east end, with a semi-circular apse or sanctuary at the west (plan, Fig. 24; Plate 33). The building was remarkably free from later disturbance; and though there had been some inevitable destruction not the least surprising feature of this aspect of the site was the way in which even modern foundations had not seriously damaged it. As already mentioned, attached to the east end was a narthex or vestibule,

the ends of which projected beyond the side-walls of the main building to give it an overall width of 36 ! feet. The complete building would thus have been T-shaped in plan; but some part of the narthex lay-and still liesunder the modern street. Its full depth from front to back remains unknown. Externally the most impressive feature of the building must have been

the apse with its massive buttresses, themselves an indication of the unstable

nature of the ground on which the temple had been built. The convex buttresses in the re-entrant angles of apse and west wall seen from the outside would have suggested that the temple had a triple apse; but the buttresses were solid. Entrance to the temple by way of the narthex was through a double door­

way, the original features of which were remarkably well-preserved (Plate 34). The sill was a single block of stone making a double step down, with much-worn margins on the inner side. In the door-rebates the sockets still retained the iron collars for the door-pivots. Immediately within the door, double steps downwards, their wooden risers in place, gave on to the sunk floor of the central body of the temple. Internally the building was revealed as of basilican plan, with nave and

side-aisles defined by sleeper-walls which had carried the stone-columned arcades: the positions of the columns were marked only by their settings; their number, seven aside, probably symbolised the seven grades of the cult. There were indications that the floor of the nave had originally been boarded, though the one or two boards which survived were no longer in their original positions. The aisle floors were at a higher level, and here the signs of timber fittings were more definite. On both north and south transverse joists supporting occasional planks had survived; and there were vertical earth-set uprights also which might have carried fixed benches (Plate 36). Such equipment was a normal part of the aisles of a mithraeum, since on them members of the community would have gathered to witness the ritual performed before the altars at the west end. Along the front wall of the apse (Plate 42) two steps upwards from the

nave floor corresponded with those at the entrance. The upper step was wider than the lower, no doubt to accommodate the altars which would have been ranged below the Mithras Tauroctonus, the representation of the god slaying the sacred bull, the chief image of the temple. There were indications that the opening of the apse had been divided into three parts by a pair of columns on a central raised plinth: an arrangement which would have enhanced the withdrawn mysterious quality of the image on the high floor of the apse. Finally, in the south-west corner beside the apse was the shallow timber-lined well which through the early years of the temple’s history provided the water required for ritual purposes. But the building did not retain its original basilican features: long before

the end of its useful life it had undergone many changes which in part at least were a reflection of the local ground conditions (Fig. 25). The wet nature of the site must from the first have given trouble with standing water. The floor-level, first of the nave, then of the body of the temple as a whole, was gradually lifted through a succession of surfaces. The final result was to raise the general level to that of the apse (a matter of about 40 inches above the original surface of the nave); but the changes were not carried out at the same rate everywhere because different parts of the building had their own special functions to fulfil and were therefore treated differently. There were nine successive floors in all in the nave, and before the last had been reached the door-sill had already been covered, making necessary a different arrangement for working the doors, with a wooden frame taking the place of the original socket-and-pivot device. The waterlogged nature of the site had its problems for the modern excavator also; but one overriding advantage at least was that the wet conditions were admirable for the pre­ servation of organic materials, so that wooden features survived, not as flimsy and elusive ghosts, but as their solid original selves. It is impossible here to describe in detail each individual phase in the

building’s history. The two most important in their effect on its general character related to nave floors 3 and 7 respectively. In the former an attempt was still being made to retain the difference in level between nave-and aislefloors or benches which is a standard feature of all mithraea. With the con­ struction of the third floor this difference in level was no longer adequately maintained. The aisle floors were therefore raised also above the tops of the sleeper-walls which had previously contained them and short lengths of walling were now built on top of the sleeper-walls, between the columns, to provide a revetment for these additions (Plate 37). The only variation in this treatment was in the third bay from the west on the south side. Here planks on edge replaced the stone wall and the bay was defined by a timber frame­ work-differences which suggested that this particular bay served soriie special function (Plate 38). The second series of changes was more drastic and must have involved a

large-scale remodelling of the upper part of the building. It may be that the primary cause of this was a structural weakness. Movement of the south wall had taken place with serious consequences for the south-western corner, where a large hole in the angle of convex buttress and wall had been

packed with a large slightly-damaged column-drum. (It is not certain that the drum itself actually came from the temple.) Whether or not these events are closely related, however-and it is practically impossible to ‘date’ the repair just described-the columns were taken down, the holes left by them being filled with stones. It is not easy to visualise the effect of these changes and at least two

explanations of them are possible. One is that the series of quite rough (and slight) timber posts which was set up along the south side only, may have provided support for a new and lighter roof. As they were found by the excavators these posts occurred in some numbers, singly and in clusters, along the line of the sleeper-wall, sometimes over, sometimes beside it. But they were obviously not all of the same date; and some of them had been driven forcibly on to the top of the wall without actually penetrating it (Plate 43), in such a way as to suggest that the existence of the wall was not realised by those responsible for putting in those particular posts. The wall had, of course, been lost to sight for some time when many of these timbers were inserted. There was no corresponding arrangement of posts along the north side of

the temple at any time in its later history, though here too the columns had been taken away. If therefore the posts served as supports for a pitched roof the result must have been of lop-sided appearance-an odd-sounding arrangement which would have resembled that of many modern factory roofs. The alternative interpretation, suggested by Professor Frere, would

replace columns and architraves by a beam and king-post construction, the ends of the beams resting on the outer (aisle) walls, since the removal of the arcades must have meant also the dismantling of the clerestory above them. On a normal interpretation of the plan of the original building this must have meant some lowering of the overall height of the temple, since the aisles would not have been as high as the nave. The height could only have been maintained by adding to the aisle walls. The width between walls (22 feet) is not an impossible span for scarfed timbers: beams of up to 17 feet were actually used in the later stages in the temple itself (see below). Under this arrangement the posts along the south side would relate to a bench or screen; and while the difference between north and south would remain the result would have been to open up the interior of the temple and give a view

of the sanctuary which would have been impossible while the columns were in place. Whatever the truth about these arrangements-and it must be admitted

that there are difficulties about both of the interpretations set out abovethe structural and other evidence certainly suggests that in its later years the temple had become a somewhat ramshackle affair. Yet throughout it retained its essential division of nave and side-aisles or benches. Beams were laid lengthwise now along the body of the temple from apse to east wall. They followed approximately the line of the original sleeper-walls, running thus with the timber uprights. They supported the joists of a wooden floor, one or two of which had survived (Plates 39, 40). But the joists lay outwards from beam to main wall, across the aisles: they did not extend across the nave. The nave now appeared therefore as an earth or mortar floor only a little lower than the aisle floors on each side of it: the difference was no more than the thickness of the longitudinal beams plus the timbers of the floors that they supported. But this was not the final development. The last floor of the temple at the

west end was level with the floor of the apse, which hitherto had always been at a higher level than any other surface in the temple (Plate 41). This was a continuous floor, extending across the full width of the building, doing away with the nave-aisle division and masking the great beams, that on the south remaining unmoved in its place. To the east, however, the division was still maintained, the build-up of the floors being carried out separately to leave the beams exposed: the floor level was now appreciably higher even than the raised door-sill and the surface sloped upwards from the sill in a couple of irregular steps. The dates of these major changes, with all their pronounced effects upon

the appearance and character of the building, will not be exactly determined until the considerable amount of pottery from the site has been worked over: here, as elsewhere in this book, all comments on this aspect of the subject are given with the warning that some adjustment may be called for in the light of more complete evidence. The limited series of coins from different levels of the temple suggests that, as already mentioned, the building was erected towards the end of the second century a . d . ; floor 3 of the nave produced a coin of Marius ( a . d . 268) and was probably laid during the late third century. The latest floors (5-9), on the other hand, were put down at a

time well into the fourth century. Coins of this period (Constantine I (308-20), Urbs Roma (330-7), Licinius I (307-34)) came from levels in the altar area before the apse which corresponded approximately with floors 5 and 6 in the nave. From floor 6 a came a fragmentary dedicatory inscription with a reference to the four Augusti, which must have been dismantled after, perhaps some time after, a . d . 307-8 (Plate 52). The make­ up of floor 8 produced a coin of Constantine II as Caesar ( a . d . 330-5). The major changes had naturally been attended by modifications in the

furniture and fittings of the temple. The well in the south-west corner must have been filled in and covered over some time before the last floor was made: overlying it in the later periods was a masonry block, built into the angle and containing a post-hole 5 inches across (Plate 35). The filling of the post-hole produced a small roundel of marble decorated with cult-symbols and it is thought that the hole may have held an upright on which votive or similar objects were hung. What substitute was provided for the original well is not known. In the last phase a wooden ‘box’ was sunk into the floor in the north-east corner of the building-the point furthest from the apse. It was intended to take a liquid of some kind, for its pit was lined with a thick layer of impervious clay. Its filling gave no clue as to what it had contained or as to the purpose it had served: one possible explanation would regard it as a substitute for the original well. Changes also took place in front of the apse, which was always the focal

point for ritual. The steps had certainly been buried by the time that floor 3 came to be laid: the arrangement of altars that would have stood in this position originally cannot therefore be known. On floor 5, however, a few feet back from the face of the apse, a pedestal-like stone stood in a position which it continued to occupy throughout the remaining process of building up the floors, its broken top just appearing through the surface of the final floor (Plate 42). This stone is apparently without parallel: it is not an altar in the normal

sense. Its back, towards the apse, is flat; on its south and east faces it has a heavy chamfered plinth; on the north there is a low shoulder-like pro­ jection. The complete form of the top of the pillar (which as it survives is 20 inches high) is uncertain: there are the remains of a broad groove or slot directed towards the apse, but the sides were broken away. The stone was set to south of the centre line of the temple and there can be little doubt that

it had been one of a pair placed symmetrically. Its companion had remained in place beside it until a late stage, to be removed some time after the last floor was laid. An irregular hole had been dug to extract it, the rough filling of which contrasted with the smooth surface of the surrounding floor. Other features must be mentioned briefly, though they are not readily

explained on present knowledge. They were a small timber-lined box sunk in the middle of floor 3 of the nave and various pieces of narrow planking set on edge obliquely towards the east end in floors 6 and 7. At the west end, in front of the apse, there were the remains of a number of small wooden stakes of varying sizes and sections which had been driven vertically into the floor from more than one level; one such was something over 10 inches long overall, its broken top just showing in the final floor. Such stakes could not have formed part of any kind of structure. A possible explanation for them is that they served to carry votive offerings: the fact that they were concentrated in the altar area supports their use for some kind of ritual purpose. Not that all the altars had been set before the apse. Commonly altars

were placed along the nave-sides and an example on the south side here was of interest both for its position and as an indication of the decline that had taken place in the temple’s fortunes. For the altar was simply the top of a small column the moulded capital of which had been squared off and the shaft tapered for insertion in the soft floor, to form a makeshift which stood only a few inches above the surface. The top of the capital had been irregularly hollowed to provide the rough focus in which the offering would have been burnt (Plate 39). One other structural feature calls for comment. It related to floor 3 of

the nave and consisted of a gully or channel along the inner face of the north sleeper-wall. The channel was 8 inches wide and 12 deep. It was lined on the side away from the wall with thin planks supported internally by oblong-sectioned uprights. The supports were braced against external pressure by wooden distance-pieces, which were nailed horizontally to their tops and were of sufficient length to bear against the face of the sleeper wall at their inner ends. The excellent state of preservation of the timber made it possible to see exactly how the arrangement had been contrived. Because the strictly basilican plan is not commonly used for mithraea the

excavation was well advanced before it was realised that the cult concerned with the Walbrook temple was that of Mithras-and, indeed, even the first discovery of a Mithraic sculpture might have had only an accidental re­ lationship with the building. This, a fragment of a large figure of one of the god’s companions, was found with two plain altars and some building frag­ ments in debris outside the south wall. The figure, carved in a niche, is about half life-size and only the lower part survives: sufficient remains, however, to show that the subject represented is Cautopates (Night), in his characteristic stance with legs crossed and symbolical torch turned down­ wards. With a companion representation of Cautes (Day), with torch turned upwards, this figure would have been set up near the east end of the temple, the two confronting one another across the nave. Final doubts, however, were dispelled by the discovery of the head of

Mithras as the first of the series of outstanding pieces of sculpture which as a whole can be claimed the equal of any so far recorded in the Western Roman Empire.1 The sculptures were actually found in two groups, the first, made up of the Mithras and the Minerva, in a depression in the later material overlying the north sleeper wall near the first column-setting from the east; the second, consisting of the Serapis, the large hand and the Mercury, from another irregular hollow in the floor of the nave just inside the entrance, where it was accompanied by a stone water-stoup or bowl, mouth down­ wards, the base of which just showed in the floor-surface (Plate 47). The Mithras and the Minerva had been protected by fragments of roofing-tile laid over them: there was no indication that the second group had been protected in the same way. The head of Mithras as found was in a delicate state. The surface of the

marble was ‘sugary’ and heavily encrusted with iron deposits from the rather moist gravelly layer which had been in contact with it for so long. The neck was found as a separate piece: the two parts were treated and joined in the British Museum Research Laboratory under Dr. H. J . Plenderleith’s direction (Plate 44). Unlike the other images, the Mithras is not a conventional portrait. The

eyes look upwards; and seen from certain angles there is a sense of tension

about the neck which suggests that the head is intended to be turning away or slightly straining backwards. On this evidence it is justifiable to assume that the head was only part of a larger subject the remainder of which was removed, leaving no trace behind. There can indeed be no doubt that the subject would have been a Bull-slaying, in which the god is usually repre­ sented in the attitude above described. There are of course many complete examples of the Mithras Tauroctonus

from Roman Mithraea. Here it is fitting to refer to the London sculpture which, found in 1889, is now known to have come from this temple (Plate 45). On this block, 17 inches high by 20 wide, the various participants are shown in their characteristic relationships at the moment of crisis in the Mithraic legend when the bull is slain. The left hand of the god pulls back the animal’s head while his right hand plunges the dagger into its shoulder: the god’s head is turned away and upwards. Cautes and Cautopates, the attendants of Mithras, are set one on each side of the main group, and there are other symbolical creatures both as part of the main scene and outside it. It seems very likely that the head found in 1954 was part of the sculptured group which would have been set upon the apse, for while other fragments show that there was at least one other representation of the same subject the quality of this piece amongst Roman work is outstanding. Something of a problem is presented by the ‘sugary’ condition of the

surface of the Phrygian cap over the god’s forehead, which in the opinion of the experts is due to the action of fire. No sign of the effects of fire was observed anywhere in the temple itself, so that the possibility of damage from a general fire must be ruled out: it may be that the damage to the head was due to contact with torches or the like in the course of ritual activities on the apse. The head of Minerva, unlike that of Mithras, can be regarded as a

portrait (Plate 46). Here the marble is undamaged though unusually dark in colour. The head has a somewhat boyish look and when found, in the dusk of a long day, was thought to be male. The treatment of the hair, however, is that of a woman; and the identity of the deity is fixed by the fact that originally the head had carried a metal helmet. This would have rested on the plain band above the forehead, and the artificial arrangement of the hair round the ears was also intended to accommodate the helmet. Finally, the top and back of the head have been left rough and towards the

front there are two holes, part of the device for keeping the helmet in position. Of the second group, the hand is roughly i-| times natural size (Plate 50).