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Caroline Juby

London Before London: Reconstructing a Palaeolithic Landscape

Supervisors: Dr Danielle Schreve (Royal Holloway, University of London), Jon Cotton (Museum of London)

Email: C.Juby@rhul.ac.uk

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Landscape and Environment programme

 

The aim of this research topic is to reconstruct the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age, 450,000 – 10,000 yrs BP) landscapes of Central and Greater London based on the large mammalian fossils and stone tool assemblages held in museums in and around London. London’s Palaeolithic research history began in the 19th century when many antiquarians collected artefacts from deposits exposed during London’s extensive urban development. In many cases these huge collections have received very little attention since, despite our ever advancing understanding of the Palaeolithic. This project provides the first opportunity to re-evaluate these collections (approximately 22,000 artefacts) and fully integrate the faunal and hominin archaeology with the geological and environmental records of London. GIS is being used to explore the temporal and spatial patterning of the human and faunal occupation throughout the Palaeolithic. Additionally research into the antiquarians’ activities during the 19th and 20th centuries explores the revolutionary period in history when the antiquity of humans was first being established.

The changing landscapes of London are depicted through a series of glacial and interglacial periods tracing the timing and nature of human occupation and the great variety of mammals and climates that London once experienced.