London before London: reconstructing a palaeolithic landscape

Project outline

Central London and its suburbs have produced a spectacular diversity of Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) remains, in association with some of the most important palaeoenvironmental information in western Europe for the Pleistocene period (last 2 million years, the 'Ice Age'). This project therefore sought not only to document the physical remains of Palaeolithic peoples and to reconstruct the dynamic earliest landscapes of London but also to explore the history of the collections in the context of 19th and early 20th century discoveries and knowledge.

Achievements

The focus was on the Palaeolithic archaeological collections of central London and the boroughs held by the collaborative partner the Museum of London.

Thousands of artefacts and fossils from Palaeolithic archaeological collections from central London and the boroughs have been described and measured. The work was carried out predominantly in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. Caroline also undertook visits to the British Geological Survey (BGS) at Keyworth, Nottingham, to record their Ilford holdings, as well as to various museum collections including Luton, Redbridge, Dartford , Wandsworth and Bromley.

Archival material (correspondence, obituaries) relating to significant amateur collectors (chiefly 19th Century), such as George Worthington Smith, John Allen Brown and Richard Payne Cotton, was gathered from the Society of Antiquaries, the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, the Ealing Local History Centre and other sources.

Caroline has presented her research at a number of conferences and has successfully published material from the project. She was awarded her PhD in 2011.