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“We’re calling this site the Pompeii of the north,” said Jackson, as she and her team took reporters in protective jackets and hard hats around the site, located in the City financial district.

As part of the visit, a few objects were displayed, including a shoe known as a carbatina — made from a single piece of leather, with cut openwork decoration. It would have folded around the foot and was stitched up at the back.

ROMAN STYLE

The shoe is one of hundreds found on the site, spanning a 200-year period and indicating changes in styles and fashions. They include flip-flop-like sandals with wooden or cork soles that allowed their wearers to protect themselves against the under-floor heating.

Also on the display table were an amber amulet shaped like a gladiator’s helmet and fist and phallus good-luck charms.

By and large, the dig has thrown up two kinds of objects: those found in trash heaps and those put up as offerings to the gods for good luck.

“We’ve been sifting through 2,000-year-old rubbish pits,” said Michael Marshall, a Roman finds specialist. “Some of them are incredibly smelly.”

The most groundbreaking finds are 100 writing tablets. So far, London has revealed only two such tablets, including one discovered nearby about the sale of a slave girl from Gaul (present-day France) by the name of Fortunata.

Bloomberg Place is also the site of a temple, the Temple of Mithras, which was originally discovered in 1954. Further traces of it have recently been found on site, which will remain underneath the building. The temple itself will be reconstructed as near as possible to its original location for public viewing.

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Muse highlights include Jorg von Uthmann on Paris arts, Rich Jaroslovsky on technology and Ryan Sutton on New York restaurants.