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The interiors of Roman villas were often lavishly decorated with painted walls and mosaic floors, and examples are found across the Roman Empire including Britain. Brading Roman Villa on the Isle of Wight was first excavated in 1880-1881 revealing rooms with elaborate mosaic floors and many fragments of painted wall plaster. This fragment shows a peacock, a popular subject for Roman artists being the bird of Juno, the Queen of Heaven. They symbolised immortality in both pagan and christian art. This object and some 60,000 other Roman items from the site are all part of Brading Roman Villa's permanent collection.