Web-based publication

Clients: Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) and English Heritage

Author of this text: Peter Rowsome

Principal authors: Various

In addition to traditional print books, MoLAS is developing ideas for web-based dissemination of archaeological work. Two recent examples of web page development come from our ALSF-funded projects.

Understanding the East London gravels is an assessment of a series of large archives from archaeological excavations on gravel extraction sites in Newham, Barking and Dagenham. The sites include important evidence for prehistoric, Late Iron Age, Roman and later occupation — right up to and including Second World War air defences in some cases. As part of the assessment, which involved contributors from the Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit and the University of York, we have now launched a series of web pages and these will be updated and added to during future stages of the project.

Aggregates and archaeology — mapping sub-surface landscapes assesses the Lower Lea Valley, work carried out by MoLAS in collaboration with the British Geological Survey and also now summarised on our web site. The River Lea lies in an area earmarked for regeneration, including the Olympic bid, where extensive quarrying has been carried out in the past. Very little is known about the archaeology that lies within the buried deposits of the Lea Valley but ALSF funding has provided an opportunity to redress this through a mapping project designed to predict areas of archaeological potential within the buried and unknown Quaternary stratigraphy.

A geoarchaeological database of sub-surface alluvial deposits was created by assessing over 3000 boreholes and other archaeological records. A series of contour plots, vertical profiles and horizontal slices (deposit models) have been generated through the sub-surface stratigraphy of the study area using Terrastation II (TSII) and further modelled using GIS-based software. Test-bed work has shown that these deposit models can be used to reconstruct the sub-surface stratigraphy of the evolving landscape. The sub-surface mapping technology used in the Lea Valley mapping project has transformed the way we can assess archaeological potential and could be readily applied to other areas where there is a threat from aggregate extraction.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2004: annual review