The Metropolis

Archaeological finds get chucked on a skip, and other secrets of the Museum of London

Mike Pollitt | Wednesday 12 October, 2011 11:22

The room in which the skip resides has dark grey breezeblock walls. It is difficult to imagine an uglier stone than these big dusty slabs. Inside the skip, however, are beautiful stones, chunks of masonry and shards dug up from London’s soil. They are being discarded because, and this is a brutal thing to hear, they have very little archaeological merit. History ouch.

I learnt this on a tour of the Museum’s archaeology archive. Here’s the flier.

And here are some more discoveries.

Digging up pots is big business. Contrary to expectations, most archaeology isn’t done by universities or Time Team. It’s carried out by commerical companies, for profit, and it makes some good money.

Digging up pots is an economic barometer. The money comes from property developers, and if they ain’t building, then archaeologists ain’t digging. The archive has shelves of finds dating back to the 1950s. Lean times, like the early 1980s recession, mean very few pots. Boom times mean shelves and shelves of the stuff. Intriguingly, there has yet to be a drop off in finds during our current little wobble, so perhaps we’re all just moaning about nothing.

Holding a piece of flint is cool. It just feels really nice. As does stroking a medieval whale bone. This is a pleasingly tactile tour.

Medieval Londoners made animal bones into ice skates. For use on the frequently frozen Thames. It was a lot colder then, and they were better with their hands.

Cows in olden days used to be massive, then in the middle ages they were small, and now they are somewhere in between. You can tell from the bones.

All in all, a good tour. Recommended.

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