Researchers from all around the world visit the LAARC. They range from academics and undergraduate and postgraduate students to archaeologists, freelance historians and members of the public. The one thing they all have in common is an interest in London's archaeological past.
On this page you can read about some of this research. Some researchers have now completed their projects while others are just starting out, but each has a story to tell and ideas to share. Browse the summaries below, and click on any of the images, or on the links to the left of this page, to find out more about each project. In addition, you can view a list of reports, dissertations and theses based upon research undertaken at the LAARC in our Research Bibliography. These are all held here in the LAARC and available for consultation.
We hope you find these stories interesting and that they may be the inspiration for your own archaeological research. We are always eager to hear about and promote any research undertaken which utilises our collection, so should you wish to showcase your own LAARC research, please contact us.
2013 Research Projects
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Runic writing in the Germanic languages:
A project studying runic script as a writing system, focussing particularly on its phonemic, graphematic and text-pragmatic aspects.
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RHX dating:
A sample of Roman and Medieval ceramic objects from the Museum of London’s archaeological collections were sent to the University of Manchester for RHX dating as part of an ongoing programme to develop and evaluate this new dating technique. |
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2012 Research Projects
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Engaging the Public with Stored Collections:
The LAARC was used as a case study for research into the value of providing physical access to museums’ reserve collections for the general public. |
English Heritage Known-Age Bone Project:
LAARC collections were utilised by the English Heritage Scientific Dating Team in a project investigating the relationship between diet and radiocarbon dates obtained from human bones. |
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Explaining Medieval London:
An article on Medieval London by John Schofield which appeared in Current Archaeology No. 267, and which highlighted the range of material available for researchers at the LAARC interested in this particular area. |
Rediscovering Brockley Hill: A Compositional and Technological study of Verulamium White Ware:
Petrographic and chemical analysis was applied to the Verulamium Region White Ware (VRW) pottery from Brockley Hill, a pottery manufacturing site from the Roman period. The data obtained provided valuable information about a variety of technological aspects related to the VRW production. The study also helped clarify the broader socio-political contexts under which this pottery was manufactured through the reconstruction of the organization of production. |
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2011 Research Projects
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From Burgundy to Bermondsey: death and burial in a Cluniac monastery:
PhD thesis research into monastic burial practices, in particular those practised by English Cluniac houses.
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Eagle House: a late 17th century utilitarian glass assemblage:
Auditing and cataloguing work was undertaken on the glass assemblage from the excavations at Eagle House (EAG87) in Cannon Street, comprising over 60 complete or almost complete olive green utility bottles and aqua coloured pharmaceutical phials dating to between 1670 and 1710. |
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Dutch Medieval Pottery:
Collections at the LAARC provided an excellent opportunity for investigating the presence of Dutch pottery in medieval London, and an insight into late medieval trade between England and Holland. |
The Manufacture and Meaning of Early Medieval Pewter Dress Accessories in Britain:
PhD thesis exploring tin-lead alloy dress accessories from both an art historical and material science approach to understand the social and technological role these objects played in the 10th to 12th centuries. |
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Research on London’s prisons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries:
Research into the prisons of medieval London, utilising archaeological evidence from the Fleet, Newgate and King’s Bench. |
Medieval Scabbards:
PhD project investigating and comparing medieval leather sheaths and scabbards from London and Bergen, Norway |
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Kitty has fallen down the well: merchants, meat and urban provisioning in 18th century London:
Investigation in to the 18th century animal bone assemblage recovered from a well at Eagle House, Cannon Street (EAG87), shedding light on the consumption habits of London’s population. |
Pompeian red ware in Roman London:
A study of the distribution of Pompeian red ware in Roman London, illustrating ceramic consumption in the city, and its links to the wider Roman world. |
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Post-medieval knife and fork handles from City of London sites:
A study of post-medieval bone, ivory, antler, horn and wood knife and fork handles from various City of London sites, focusing on the typology and evolution of handle styles during the post-medieval period. |
2010 Research Projects
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From Foundation to Destruction: an Archaeology of Early Roman London to AD 61:
A PhD thesis which compiled evidence of the pre-Boudican period (c. AD 47–60/61) in Roman London from over 100 archaeological sites in the City of London and Southwark to produce an interpretation of the process of foundation and early settlement growth. |
Latest Roman London:
Research conducted on Late-Roman London as part of the ‘Crisis, what Crisis? Project seeking to investigate the causes and nature of social collapses. |
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London's Medieval Friaries:
PhD thesis investigating and reconstructing plans of London’s medieval friaries, using a combination of documentary and archaeological sources. |
LAARC Stone Reference Collection:
The LAARC stone reference collection has been assembled to meet the demand from researchers, archaeological units and the general public for an accessible hands-on assemblage of worked stone-types for the London area, and consists of nearly 200 examples of worked stone from Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval Occupation phases as well as numerous outcrop samples. |
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