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The 1998 Archaeology Conference
Reports on recent work – followed by ‘Twenty-five years digging in the City of London’
Saturday 14 March 1998
When we look back to 1970, it seems extraordinary how little was known archaeologically about early London. It had been shown that the city walls were Roman in origin, and a number of Roman public buildings had been located, but the excavation of dozens of houses and shops, and of the amphitheatre, lay some way in the future. Similarly, although it was supposed that London’s prosperity had depended from the start on overseas trade, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that excavation of the Roman and medieval port would take place – on a scale unprecedented or unsurpassed in the UK. But perhaps the thing that most puzzled historians then was why there was no archaeological evidence for 7th and 8th-century London – a city which Bede had described as ‘a trading centre for many nations’. We now know that Lundenwic lay outside the old walled city, to the west, around Covent Garden and the Strand.
Discussion of these and many other themes made for a fascinating afternoon. No less did it provide a foundation for building an archaeological research strategy for the next 25 years.