Dr David Walsh, Lecturer in the Department of Classical & Archaeological studies, has published a new article in the Journal of Late Antiquity, in which he argues that the remains of one of what was believed to be one of the oldest churches in Britain was, in fact, a temple to Mithras.
In recent decades, archaeologists in regions such as Germany, Italy, and France have developed an increasingly robust approach to the identification of early churches and thus dismissed a number of formerly misidentified examples in the process. In Britain, however, various supposed “churches” discovered in the twentieth century continue to be referred to as such despite a lack of strong evidence to substantiate this. One such example is a structure found at Butt Road, Colchester. In this article, the issues surrounding the interpretation of this building as a church are revisited and enhanced, while it is illustrated why other interpretations, such as a “pagan funerary banqueting hall,” are also unlikely.