Series:

MoLAS Monograph

9 primary works • 10 total works

Book 4

Cover of The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London
In Roman London, the dead were buried beyond the limits of the settlement, and from the late 1st to the early 5th century AD an extensive area east of the modern City of London was used as the place of burial for a significant part of the local population. This volume reports on twelve excavations of Roman material which uncovered 550 inhumation and 136 cremation burials, and has revealed evidence for a wide variety of burial rites, structures, inscriptions and other features. The evidence has proved extremely informative about the superstitions and traditions of this London community whilst also suggesting strong links with other parts of the Roman world.

Book 10

Cover of The London Charterhouse
This, the latest in the series of MoLAS monographs on the religious houses of medieval London, considers the London Charterhouse, a Carthusian monastery founded in 1371, just outside the walled city. The volume is primarily intended to report on the 1998 excavations in Preachers Court, part of the Inner Court of the Charterhouse, but also incorporates a reassessment of Grimes' post-war work, and the results of numerous small excavations, evaluations and watching briefs conducted within the monastic precinct between 1998 and 2000. The result is a new, fully illustrated account of the development of the entire monastery, with a particular focus on its service areas. Separate discussions examine the pre-monastic use of the site as one of London's Black Death cemeteries, diet within the monastery, the monastic economy, and the impact of the sub-urban location on the reclusive Carthusian order. Evidence for the post-Dissolution period - the wider setting of the 16th century mansion and the hospital established in 1613/14 - is also examined, in this look at one of London's most fascinating historic sites.

Book 14

Cover of Prehistory and Topography of Southwark and Lambeth
This volume provides the first synthesis of the available prehistoric and topographic information from the area of north Southwark and Lambeth, London, in the period c.9500 cal BA to c.AD 50. The authors consider the interplay between environmental and riverine change and 'mobile' and 'settled' human communities. They draw on recent unpublished data as well as published work, including a Mesolithic camp adjacent to a Late Glacial lake in Bermondsey, a burnt mound and ring ditch with an assemblage of cremations, and preserved ploughmarks. The book incorporates an account of the succession of the palaeoecological environment, and the prehistory of Southwark and Lambeth is set in the wider regional context of the Thames Valley. The thematic chapters are supported by a gazetteer of all findspots of prehistoric material and specialist reports on the worked flint, pottery and radiocarbon determinations.

Book 15

Cover of Middle Saxon London
The Royal Opera House is located on the north side of Covent Garden London, in the heart of what was the Middle Saxon settlement of Lundenwic. This settlement was flourishing centre for trade and manufacture from the 7th to 9th centuries. Urban redevelopment in 1996 included the largest excavation yet undertaken in the area, providing a wealth of information about the settlement, its inhabitants, their work and daily lives. This well illustrated publication reports on the results of the excavations, describes a sequence of occupation, and considers more general themes such as the relationship of the Middle Saxon settlement to Roman Londinium, Saxon crafts and industry, the agricultural economy, trade, and demography. The discoveries included an 8th century street plan, specialised industrial buildings, rubbish and debris from a jewellery workshop, evidence of ironworking and a 9th-century defensive ditch with a hoard of Northumbrian stycas buried in its berm. The ditch was probably a response to Viking attack, but it failed to prevent the Viking occupation of Lundenwic in 871.
The book also looks at the medieval and post-medieval development of the area, and includes numerous, brief specialist reports on the finds and environmental remains.

Book 18

Cover of Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Stratford Langthorne, Essex
The Cistercian monastery of St Mary Stratford Langthorne once stood on land south of the new Jubilee Line station at Stratford. Excavations 1973-94 recorded large parts of the monastic church, cemetery and related buildings. Topics include the precinct arrangement, architecture and decoration, and the way of life of the inhabitants. The expansion of the monastic church from a simple cruciform building in the mid 12th century into an aisled presbytery with ambulatory and eastern chapel in the 13th century is notable. The excavated burials (647) are the largest sample from a Cistercian site in Europe and provide evidence for burial customs, patterns of cemetery use and the physical characteristics of the population, including medical care.

Book 22

Cover of Royal palace, abbey and town of Westminster on Thorney Island
The Palace and Abbey of Westminster provide one of the most familiar images in the world. From its beginnings on an island surrounded by the Rivers Thames and Tyburn more than 7000 years ago, the site became the most important centre of English history from the 11th century onwards. The palace, which started as one of many royal residences, became the principal home of the English monarchs until it was damaged by fire during the reign of Henry VIII. The former royal chapel of St Stephen became the home of the House of Commons and the palace, with the rise in the power of Parliament in the mid 17th century, once again took centre stage in English history. The abbey, one of the richest and most important monastic establishments in England, was also a royal church, home to the coronations of all English monarchs since Edward the Confessor and mausoleum to many of Englands royal houses. This book publishes the archaeological work undertaken for the Jubilee Line Extension Project in the 1990s and a series of other archaeological investigations in and around the Palace of Westminster. It starts with the origins of the settlement on Thorney Island over 7000 years ago and discusses the evidence from the later prehistoric, Roman and Saxon periods before describing the development of the palace up to the fire of 1834. Important aspects of this work are the understanding of the varying environmental conditions around the island and the integration of antiquarian observations to provide an up-to-date synthesis of our current knowledge.

Book 41

Cover of Early and Middle Saxon Rural Settlement in the London Region
Until now the evidence for London's Early and Middle Saxon rural settlement and economy has received scant attention. This monograph provides a long-awaited overview of the subject, drawing on the results of six decades of archaeological fieldwork since the war, in addition to historical and place-name evidence. Some of the material has been published before and will be familiar to the reader, but much of it has only been available as site archives or unpublished reports, and at best briefly summarised as notes in excavation round-ups. This synthesis therefore forms an indispensible guide to researchers. The first part focuses on twenty-six sites and six fish traps across the region, followed by thematic sections on a range of topics, and then a final section on the pottery finds.

Book 49

Cover of A Dated Type Series of London Medieval Pottery, Part 5
An essential survey for all interested in the pottery of the London area, this study charts the development, peak and decline of two ceramic traditions: the shelly wares of c 1140–1220, mainly city-based but reaching Scotland and across the North Sea to Norway, and the greywares of c 1170–1350, widely used in the city and even more so in its hinterland. In addition to fabric analyses, form typologies, a gazetteer of find spots and scientific data, the study includes a summary of greyware production centres, and considers function, use, marketing of medieval pottery and the chronology of selected consumer sites in London and its region.

Book 63

Cover of Lundenwic

Lundenwic

by Robert Cowie, Lyn Blackmore, A Davis, and Jackie Keily

Published 31 October 2012
The development of the major settlement of Lundenwic in the late 7th century AD marked the rebirth of London as a town. In the following century the emporium served as a seaport for the landlocked kingdom of Mercia and played a significant role in the maritime trade of north-west Europe. This monograph provides the first detailed overview of the archaeological evidence for the trading port, placing it in its regional, national and international context. The results of fieldwork at 18 locations on the site of the former Middle Saxon settlement are followed by essays on various aspects of the settlement, including its geographical setting, activity pre-dating Lundenwic (which includes one or more cemeteries), the development, size and layout of the emporium, food production and consumption, crafts and industry, trade, dress and religion.


The final section focuses on finds assemblages recovered from the settlement, including ceramics, glass, metal, and bone and antler artefacts, as well as human, animal and plant remains. Radiocarbon dates interpreted by Bayesian modelling are found to broadly accord with archaeological evidence for rapid settlement growth in the third quarter of the 7th century AD, and the first use of Ipswich ware (an important chronological marker) in London c AD 730. The volume also includes a gazetteer of sites and a timeline for the settlement and its hinterland.

Cover of The Holocene Evolution of the London Thames
A final report on the excavation of the Jubilee Line Extension project which revealed evidence for the Holocene environment of the Thames Valley 10,000 years ago. Excavations uncovered a 12 km stretch of sedimentary deposits which contained a number of rich archaeological sites that illustrated the fluctuating nature of the Thames floodplain and river. Particular attention is paid to the Holocene environments of Westminster, Southwark, Rotherhithe and Canning Town.