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Karen
Thomas
Head of Archive
Museum of London Archaeology
Archaeological watching briefs were carried out by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) on the Crossrail Victoria Dock Portal worksite, which consisted of utilities diversions centred around Victoria Dock Road and Seagull Road. Trenches were excavated to a depth of 2.0m finding natural terrace gravels overlain by thick peat deposits sealed by a horizon of alluvial clay. All deposits were archaeologically sterile. The sequence was sealed by modern made ground and the concrete and tarmac of the current road and pavement surfaces.
Three trial trenches and a targeted watching brief also afforded the opportunity to record and sample the sequence above the Pleistocene Thames gravels (from 3.3m below OD). The sequence consisted of potentially early Holocene river meandering to tidal creek formation at the base to prehistoric wood peats before rising sea level created the later, probably historic, estuarine floodplain. Of interest is the evidence for a fluvial or extreme weather event at the eastern end of the site. No artefacts or structures were recovered.
Further information about this site can be found in: A journey through time: Crossrail in the lower Thames floodplain by Graham Spurr with Mary Nicholls and Virgil Yendell.
Additional metadata can be found in the MOLA Conventions, Attribute Definitions, and Validation Tables.