The Roman painted plaster revealed after more than seventeen hundred years
Before the painting was lifted there had been some speculation as to the style of decoration that we would find. We knew it was multicoloured from small loose, separated fragments of painted plaster that had already been recovered. A simple design of coloured panels and borders was thought most likely. Looking at it in the pale October sunshine, the hairs on the back of my neck curled as I saw we had something much more complicated and exciting. Although the painting was very dirty I could see enough to recognise that what we had was important and wonderful.

This fragment cleaned can be seen here.