Title: |
Alcatel-Lucent Telegraph Works, Blackwall Lane, London Borough of Greenwich SE10: Environmental archaeological assessment report. |
Series: |
Quaternary Scientific (Quest) unpublished report series
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Downloads: |
quaterna1-248193_2.pdf (3 MB)
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Licence Type: |
ADS Terms of Use and Access
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DOI |
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Publication Type: |
Report (in Series)
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Abstract: |
The site appears to lie within a large trough in the Shepperton Gravel surface, representative of at least one major palaeochannel traversing Greenwich Peninsula from west to east. Within the confines of the channel, the Gravel is overlain by a sequence of Alluvium and Peat as recorded elsewhere in the Lower Thames Valley. In the analysed Alcatel-Lucent sequence, the Peat is relatively thin (0.5m) and seemingly accumulated from the beginning to the end of the Neolithic. At Enderby Wharf, the complex of Peat units is around 2m thick dating from the middle Neolithic to late Bronze Age. Despite the location of archaeological structures on edge of the channel to the south at Bellot Street, there is no definitive evidence of human activity within the sequences analysed. The Alcatel Lucent peat deposits do however predate the archaeological remains at Bellot Street, which may explain the lack of evidence for activity. At Alcatel-Lucent, the Peat surface was occupied by limited alder-willow carr woodland, with sedge fen, reed swamp and areas of standing/slowly moving water; by contrast, at Enderby Wharf, a greater amount of alder woodland is indicated. Both sites indicate a dryland occupied by oak-lime dominated mixed deciduous woodland that post-dates the well-documented Neolithic elm decline, however, this woodland signal is stronger at Alcatel Lucent. Towards the end of the Neolithic a shift towards sedge fen, reed swamp and salt-marsh communities is recorded on the floodplain with evidence for a drastic shift from freshwater to estuarine-dominated conditions resulting from a rise in relative sea level. At the same time, a large reduction in mixed deciduous woodland took place on the dryland, probably as a result of human activity from the late Neolithic onwards. Whether the decline of the floodplain and dryland woodland is linked is uncertain, but does seem to be a common feature of woodland within pollen-stratigraphic records from the Lower Thames Valley. |
Author: |
Daniel Young
C R Batchelor
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Publisher: |
Quaternary Scientific (Quest)
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Other Person/Org: |
Historic England (OASIS Reviewer)
Greater London HER (OASIS Reviewer)
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Year of Publication: |
2015
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Locations: |
Site: |
Alcatel-Lucent Telegraph Works |
County: |
Greater London |
District: |
Greenwich |
Parish: |
GREENWICH |
Country: |
England |
Grid Reference: 539409, 178721 (Easting, Northing)
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Subjects / Periods: |
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Identifiers: |
OASIS Id: |
quaterna1-248193 |
OBIB: |
Quaternary Scientific (QUEST) Unpublished Report December 2015; Project Number 095/14. |
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Source: |
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Relations: |
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Created Date: |
30 Apr 2020 |