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A Bronze Age barrow cemetery at Andover Airfield, Penton Mewsey, near Weyhill, Hampshire: excavations 2007-10
No full textArchaeological excavation by MOLA on a chalk downland site near Andover revealed funerary activity from the Chalcolithic (‘Beaker’) period to the Late Bronze Age. A single inhumation became the focus for later cremation burials; these were succeeded by two isolated barrows and a barrow cemetery, which in turn attracted further urned and unurned cremation burials. The chronology is supported by a series of radiocarbon dates. In all, eight inhumation and 35 cremation burials are detailed, together with pottery, worked flint and small finds. A 5m deep Middle Bronze Age shaft produced an assemblage of animal bone, possibly the remains of feasting
Finsbury Circus, Liverpool Street (Crossrail XRZ10)
No full textTwo phases of archaeological excavation (two general watching briefs and one evaluation with one trench) were carried out at the site of Crossrail Finsbury Circus Shaft by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), between 11/03/11 to 01/04/11. 19th-century garden soil horizons overlying post-medieval dumps were recoreded at a maximum depth of 9.86 OD. These were related to the reclimanation of land overlying Moorfields Marsh. Medieval marsh deposits sealed Roman cut features at 8.6 OD. These included a possible quarry pit and intercutting ditch and pit. Natural Gravels and sand were truncated to a maximum depth of 7.92 OD. Combined general and targeted watching briefs were carried out at the site of Crossrail Finsbury Circus Shaft by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). Natural Gravels and sand were truncated to a maximum depth of 7.95m OD. A channel exposed in the western area of the shaft footprint may have been the route of the Early Holocene Walbrook River. Medieval marsh deposits sealed Roman cut features at 8.73m OD. These included two [rubbish] pits dated to the second century AD. Post-medieval dumps relating to the reclaimation of land overlying Moorfields Marsh were recorded at a maximum depth of 9.86m OD. A robust, well preserved NE-SW aligned culvert dated 1666-1800 was also recorded immediatly beneath the foundations of a recently demolished Victorian building. 19th-century and later garden soil horizons associated with sites current use as a park/bowling green filled the shaft to ground level
A 3rd century AD cremation cemetery at Franklands Drive, near Addlestone
No full textArchaeological investigations on an open field site to the south-west of Addlestone revealed two foci of Middle-Late Bronze Age activity that involved the setting of pottery vessels in pits. A lone Late Iron Age unurned cremation burial was accompanied by an unusual North Gaulish Gallo-Belgic facet-cut barrel beaker, dated to c 10 BC-AD 14. An isolated pit contained a range of early/mid-2nd century ceramics related to consumption. However, the most significant feature of the site was a mid-late 3rd century AD cremation cemetery that comprised 28 urned cremation burials and nine possible (or unurned) cremation burials. The remains were indicative of a rural population and the urns were mostly of a regional type. A curious aspect of the cemetery was the near absence of grave goods but there is some evidence for pyre goods and analysis of the iron nails from cremation deposits reveals the presence of footwear and possibly upholstered biers. It is suggested that this cemetery was located in a special place in the landscape with little evidence for an adjacent settlement. There was no evidence for any later land use until the site was crossed by field boundaries, in the 18th century
Eleanor Street Shaft (Crossrail XTJ13)
No full textThis archive presents the results of an archaeological evaluation carried out by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) on the site of the Eleanor Street Shaft, within the area known as the Bow Triangle, London E3, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Overlying the natural terrace gravels in evaluation Trench 1 (area of the temporary shaft) was a layer of reworked brickearth, probably as a result of cultivation, dated by clay tobacco pipe to 1700-1770. Above this was a buried soil which was interpreted as a horticultural horizon. Overlying this were 19th-century building remains, sealed by modern overburden. Underlying the modern made ground on the site was a layer covering the entire shaft area. This has been dated to c.1480-1800/1900 and interpreted as a post-medieval cultivation soil. Historic mapping illustrates that the site remained undeveloped through the post medieval period until the mid-19th century, when urban development around the site accelerated and construction of railways in this part of London began. On Gascoigne's 1703 map the site was open ground, the later maps of Rocque in 1746 and Horwood in 1799 show the area was in use as fields and Stanford's map of 1862 depicts the area surrounding Eleanor Street comprising of market gardens. These are all consistent with the archaeological evidence. Underlying the layer were natural terrace gravels. The archaeological fieldwork has demonstrated that remains relating to the Prehistoric, Roman or medieval period have not survived to the modern era, if they were once present on site
The medieval priory and hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate suburb: excavations at Spitalfields Market, London E1, 1991-2007
No full textSpitalfields Market was the the site of the Augustinian priory and hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, later known as St Mary Spital. Large areas of the medieval precinct have been explored, making this by far the most intensively investigated medieval hospital – and one of the most extensively investigated monastic establishments – in Britain. Exceptional discoveries included a pre-existing extramural and extraparochial cemetery that became the priory’s principal cemetery; remarkable evidence from the canons’ infirmary with its attached pharmacy; the charnel crypt of the 14th-century cemetery chapel, which survived and is preserved today under Bishops Square; and the secular hamlet of timber houses and workshops that grew around the cemetery in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Spitalfields series includes: A bio-archaeological study of medieval burials on the site (MOLA Monograph 60, 2012); The Spitalfields suburb 1539–c 1880 (MOLA Monograph 61, 2015)
Whitechapel Station (Crossrail XSH10)
No full textThree evaluation trenches were opened at the Cambridge Heath worksite (located to the E of Brady Street, TQ 3486 8195), while watching briefs were conducted at both that site and the Essex Wharf worksite (on the N side of Durward Street, TQ 3461 8196). Natural Taplow terrace gravels were recorded at each borehole location between 3.25 and 4.90m below street level. In the extreme eastern edge of the gardens, waterlain deposits were recorded possibly from an undated ditch or paloechannel. Immediately to the north two phases of brick floor, possibly delineating yard surfaces and associated deposits were exposed in a starter pit. One particular context containing fine Chinese porcelain, a wig curler and imported German stoneware gives us a snapshot of daily life at the time. A subsequent borehole suggested that substantial brick foundations survived to a considerable depth in this area, most likely associated with 18th-19th century terraced buildings that had been levelled following World War II. Little in situ remains survived from the period when the gardens were in use as a (Quaker) burial ground, from the late 17th to 19th centuries. Only tentative evidence was recorded of in situ remains. Disarticulated human bone was documented in each intervention, generally in the higher deposits, implying that the remains had been well disturbed and subsequently redistributed across the site. Chalk and sandstone inclusions drilled from one borehole may have been from an in situ structure of unknown date, but are just as likely arbitrary inclusions. The majority of the deposits were dated by inclusions (ceramics and tobacco pipes) from the 18th-19th centuries, and were recorded within substantial levelling/ make up dumps. The watching brief demonstrated that there is extensive survival of low grade post medieval deposits across the site, the majority formed once the burial ground had gone into disuse. 18th-19th century domestic buildings survive at a shallow depth in the north of the gardens, as predicted through contemporary mapping. There is limited evidence of Victorian and latter disturbance, again supported by documentation that shows little change following the gardens establishment in the 19th century. The watching brief was part of a wider project investigated and recorded with this site code. At Durward Street Shaft (Essex Wharf worksite) the natural brickearth was cut by two undated ditches which may relate to the division of the area into planned plots for intensive agriculture as shown on Rocque's 18th century map. A circular brick-lined structure set into natural gravel is in the same position as a feature marked 'tank' on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map midway between the contemporary rail head and a superphosphate fertiliser works. It may relate to water supply for the former or water disposal for the latter. A part of the 19th century railway cutting retaining wall which had remained in use until the present day was recorded during demolition
Connaught Tunnel (Crossrail XSY11)
No full textThis archive presents the results of a field evaluation carried out by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) on the site of Connaught Tunnel, London E16, in the London Borough of Newham. The work was commissioned from MOLA by Crossrail Ltd. The sequence in the four trenches excavated is typified by basal sands grading up from the underlying gravels, overlain by peats and sealed by alluvial clays. The elevation of the surface of the Pleistocene / Early Holocene sands to the base of the sequence indicates that Trenches 1 and 4 are likely to be on the margins of discrete landscape features such as floodplain islands previously indicated around Custom House and others suggested around London City Airport. Trenches 2 and 3 appear to be within lower areas of migrating channels. The peat deposits contained discrete bands of organic clays; the thickness, position and number of which varied between the trenches and indicates different landscape positions or hydrology, with prehistoric and potentially historic channels evident in Trench 3. The top of the upper alluvial clays were likely to have been truncated in the past within some of the trenches and the thickness of the overlying made ground varied between the trenches. Trenches 1, 3 and 4 appeared to have been truncated but showed later possibly medieval to historic soil development before the addition of made ground. The alluvial clay in Trench 2 appears to have been least truncated with the survival of upper weathered alluvial deposits and very little made ground