The Resurrection of the Body: The Temple of Mithras in the City of London

In 1954 a Roman temple dedicated to Mithras was discovered in a bombsite in the City of London. The bust of Mithras that was uncovered drew national attention, with thousands coming to see the excavated remains. The history of the site, stretching from Roman London to its contemporary transformation into Bloomberg's European headquarters, testifies to the force of money in shaping urban space, while the sculptures discovered there demanded a cultic response, then and now, from their audience. The bust of Mithras became both a sign of the war dead, otherwise suppressed in official discourse, and a challenge to the idea that cities were ordered, controlled environments. Finally, Mithras emerges as a counterpoint to the growing financial capital that underpinned post-war London and presents a cyclical, ritualised conception of history that integrates the Roman origins of the city into its twentieth-century manifestation.