Tenth in the Museum of London Archaeology series on the archaeology of the Crossrail project, this instalment deals with the branch line from Stepney Green to Abbey Wood south of the river Thames.
The terrain across which this section of Crossrail will run has seen by turn, braided channels depositing gravel terraces, wooded marshes, and peat bog; followed by inundation which formed salt marsh and tidal mudflats. This means almost no conventional archaeology is present and the area was studied using geoarchaeology techniques.
The first part of the book explains these techniques, such as pollen analysis, the study of diatoms and ostracods, alongside data analysis and computer modelling. This provides a very useful introduction to these topics.
The next three chapters discuss the three main climate phases which have affected the area, starting with the late Pleistocene and Mesolithic period. From here comes the only conventional archaeology in the form of two scatters of late Mesolithic flint recovered at the North Woolwich Portal site.
The Neolithic to Bronze Age are next, followed by the late Prehistoric through to the Post-Medieval.
Each of these chapters ends with a section describing the environment of the period through the eyes of people living in the area, and how they would have utilised and travelled through their surroundings. These sections earth the technical data which precedes them and enables the book to successfully walk the tightrope between academic and popular publication.
The book is very well produced and generously furnished with maps, photographs, diagrams and tables all illuminating the subject. My personal favourites are the historic reconstruction illustrations of Faith Vardy.
The text concludes with a reminder that climate and sea level change are by no means new phenomena to the Thames basin, but as global warming manifests itself, with so much more at stake we ignore the record of the past at our peril.