London’s Oldest Prehistoric Structure?

Waterlogged wood expert Michael Bamforth is here recording and subsampling various timbers lifted during fieldwork on foreshore sites in London for the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. 

 

The timbers include one which may belong to London’s oldest prehistoric structure – a group of timbers on the foreshore outside the MI6 building at Vauxhall, others of which have been previously dated to the Late Mesolithic at around 4800–4500 BC. 

 

Following recording, the timbers will be subsampled for species ID and radiocarbon dating.