Sculpture, carved block

Carved block of stone which once formed part of a large monumental arch in Roman London. This block is one of 27 known stones from the arch and is decorated on three faces. The corner of the fourth face and the top has two large dovetail cramp holes in it.
The long front face is dominated by a central section decorated with a cantharus (a style of ancient Greek drinking cup), made from leaves. On the cup, two central scrolls face each other, with leaves on either side, surmounted by a horizontal band with almost triangular ‘lid’ section on top. On either side of this lid are scrolls facing outwards, and with plain garlands hanging down. Plain bands of concave cyma reversa moulding and pilasters decorated with overlapping leaves flank the motif. On the left hand carved side face is a down-turned crescent moon, placed horizontally, while on the right hand side are three pairs of the small wing-like leaf motifs, pointing downwards and fading into a deliberate recess to the back right. Carved from oolitic limestone, it was found with other similar stones, reused as building material in the riverside wall built to protect Roman London between the 270s and 280s CE.