A TEAM of archaeologists have recovered items stretching back hundreds of years at the site of a new development in Stockwell Street.
Ceramic jugs, bone handled toothbrushes, thimbles, coins and bottles were among the items brought back to the surface in the £85,000 project.
The dig was commissioned by the University of Greenwich who have been given planning permission to build a new campus library and dedicated school of Architecture on the site.
The oldest items found were fragments of medieval pottery, and the largest item was a mid 19th century jug, pictured below, depicting the story of Robinson Crusoe.
The land was home to a malt house in the 18th century, and brick wells on the site were used by local residents for dumping rubbish.
Lead archaeologist Duncan Hawkins, from CgMs Consulting, says: “These finds throw light on the lives of the people who lived here, and the work they did. They provide evidence that Stockwell Street was home to a ‘middling’ class of workers: professionals, artisans, tradesmen and craftsmen. In many ways, those communities were not so different from ours and, in archaeological terms, we are separated only by a small amount of a time.”
A detailed study of the discoveries will be undertaken by the University and their permanent home will be in the Musuem of London’s archives.
The redevelopment of the site is expected to be completed in 2014.
[…] A development project in Greenwich, England, revealed bone-handled toothbrushes, thimbles, coins, bottles, and a nineteenth-century ceramic jug decorated with an image from the story of Robinson Crusoe. […]