Well-Preserved Roman Statue Discovered in London

LONDON, ENGLAND—A two-foot-tall Roman statue dating to the first or second century A.D. has been unearthed at a building site near the Tower of London. The limestone sculpture, considered to be the best preserved of its type in the world, depicts an eagle holding a snake in its beak, thought to symbolize the struggle between good and evil and triumph over death. “Funerary sculpture from the city is very rare and this example, perhaps from inside a mausoleum, is a particularly fine example which will help us to understand how the cemeteries and tombs that lined the roads out of the city were furnished and the beliefs of those buried there,” said Michael Marshall of the Museum of London Archaeology.