Data copyright © Museum of London Archaeology unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
David
Bowsher
Director of Research
Museum of London Archaeology
Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London
N1 7ED
UK
Tel: 020 7410 2285
The project was designed to publish results from archaeological excavations conducted between 1983 and 1990 at different sites within an area covering about 12ha in the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets, to the east of the City of London. A large Roman cemetery, or series of cemeteries produced 136 cremation burials and 550 inhumation burials, together with a further 165 features identified as disturbed burials, but without surviving human remains. In addition to significant data on burial and funerary practice and the human skeletal assemblage, there were important artefactual, botanical and faunal assemblages.
The full paper and digital archives, and most of the finds from the project are publicly accessible in the archive of the Museum of London, and can be consulted by prior arrangement with the Archive Manager at the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED (www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/other-collection-databases-and-libraries/museum-london-archaeological-archive). The human bone assemblage (with the exception of WTN84 which was reburied) is accessible to researchers in good standing by prior application to the Senior Curator of Human Osteology at the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology (CHB), Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN (http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/Centre-for-Human-Bioarchaeology/).
Although the post-excavation project was not designed with digital dissemination in mind, the published report and important parts of the digital archive are being made available through ADS as part of the English Heritage Rescue of Complete Archaeological Projects (RECAP) to ensure continued access for researchers, particularly those not based in London.
Note that many of these reports refer to a historic name of the project: Roman London Eastern Cemetery (RLEC). Also some are converted from old file formats and may have lost original formatting.
Most cemetery data tables were originally recorded in the MoLAS Oracle relational database. Most of these tables were transferred as .LST files (simple text files with the pipe separator "|"). This is how the Museum of London makes osteological information available over the web from the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology site. Assessment level animal bone, sample processing data and all botanical remains were recorded on a UNIX system (Informix) and supplied as .tab files. Separate data tables were created for each site code. All files have been presented on the ADS site as comma separated values (.csv).
Available metadata is provided for all Oracle derived database tables. Metadata for the Informix database is provided in the form of a draft LAARC document informix_documentation_guide.
Cremated human bone was recorded in separate tables included under documents\human_bone_reports.
Although selected pottery data was included in the Oracle data tables, separate files are provided giving dating by context and fabric data.
Note that the inhumed human bone database presented here is that produced by Jan Conheeney during the preparation of the published report. The inhumed human bone assemblage is currently (March 2009) being re-analysed and recorded as part of its transfer to the CHB (see above). The new database will be made available for download from the CHB when work is complete.