Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail
Crossrail is a new railway line running east-west through the centre of London. Much of it is underground, so there were many opportunities for archaeology while it was being built. A new exhibition at Museum of London Docklands explores what was found there.
Most of the tunnels are 30 to 40 metres below ground, to avoid disturbing earlier tunnels and the foundations of buildings. This is much deeper than any remains of human settlement, and so archaeologists only worked at the places where the builders had to dig down from the surface - mainly where a station was being built or extended. Even so, they had plenty to occupy them. Finds date from the Stone Age to the 19th century.
There are a surprising number of skeletons (or perhaps not so surprising, when you consider that people have been dying in London for over 2000 years). One location in Walbrook yielded a few dozen skeletons from the early centuries AD that had all been beheaded. The site of a massacre? A burial ground for criminals? A secret Roman cult? We may never know.
A less macabre exhibit that caught my eye is a selection of Roman hipposandals - a metal cover that slides over a horse's hoof. Nobody seems to be entirely sure when the modern horseshoe was invented. (Perhaps, in the absence of modern communication technology, it was invented independently several times.)
The exhibition also covers the building of Crossrail, though this is limited to some timelapse videos. It might've been nice to have some artefacts or models, though the title of the exhibition should've set my expectations.
I'd recommend this exhibition to anyone who's interested in archaeology or the history of London. Allow an hour to an hour and a half to go around. Admission is free, and it runs until 3 September 2017.
Most of the tunnels are 30 to 40 metres below ground, to avoid disturbing earlier tunnels and the foundations of buildings. This is much deeper than any remains of human settlement, and so archaeologists only worked at the places where the builders had to dig down from the surface - mainly where a station was being built or extended. Even so, they had plenty to occupy them. Finds date from the Stone Age to the 19th century.
There are a surprising number of skeletons (or perhaps not so surprising, when you consider that people have been dying in London for over 2000 years). One location in Walbrook yielded a few dozen skeletons from the early centuries AD that had all been beheaded. The site of a massacre? A burial ground for criminals? A secret Roman cult? We may never know.
A less macabre exhibit that caught my eye is a selection of Roman hipposandals - a metal cover that slides over a horse's hoof. Nobody seems to be entirely sure when the modern horseshoe was invented. (Perhaps, in the absence of modern communication technology, it was invented independently several times.)
The exhibition also covers the building of Crossrail, though this is limited to some timelapse videos. It might've been nice to have some artefacts or models, though the title of the exhibition should've set my expectations.
I'd recommend this exhibition to anyone who's interested in archaeology or the history of London. Allow an hour to an hour and a half to go around. Admission is free, and it runs until 3 September 2017.
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