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4 - London, Capital of Empire – Some Archaeological Reflections
- Edited by Roger Leech, Pamela Leech
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- Book:
- The Colonial Landscape of the British Caribbean
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 31 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 19 March 2021, pp 57-70
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Summary
SUMMARY: The infrastructure of London during the era of developing empire reflected the dependence of the city and Britain on resources originating beyond Europe and something of this survives among the standing buildings and buried remains, though it is often the sheer scale of the latter that remains impressive. In contrast, the extensive archaeological assemblages of finds from post-medieval London, primarily up to the mid 18th century, furnish often surprisingly detailed evidence of specific aspects of the capital's role at this time. Various aspects of the excavated material culture are discussed from this perspective, and several themes for further study emerge.
FOREWORD
By Nigel Jeffries
The efforts and achievements of Geoff Egan (19 October 1951–24 December 2010), a leading UK specialist in medieval and later finds have been well documented. Geoff was a well-travelled and popular figure. In 1976 he joined the Museum of London's Department of Urban Archaeology (DUA) and for 34 years played a central role in researching, cataloguing, and contextualizing the vast quantities of medieval and later ‘small things’ recovered either from archaeological excavations in London by the DUA and its successors the Museum of London Archaeology Service (1991–2008) and MoLA (2008–) or those which formed part of the collections of the Museum of London. In July 2010 he was appointed finds adviser for the Portable Antiquities Scheme based at the British Museum, a position he filled for only a short period until his untimely death.
For my part, my role in shaping this article began in late 2018 when Professor Roger Leech contacted me to ask, in my capacity as a former colleague of Geoff's at MoLA and having just completed work on the glass from the Nevis Heritage Project sites of Charlestown and Mountravers, if I might review the paper and suggest a pathway for its publication. Upon reading it I felt little point in revising or significantly rewriting it and so what you read below remains largely true to the first completed draft submitted by Geoff to Roger Leech in February 2010. Any subsequent changes by me or the monograph editor were largely to format the text to the SPMA style and amend the bibliography and footnotes to provide (for example) updated references for the cited articles and books which have been published since Geoff's article was submitted. The remaining part of this paper is substantially as written by Geoff.
Rematerialising Metropolitan Histories? People, Places and Things in Modern London
- Edited by Audrey Horning, Marilyn Palmer
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- Book:
- Crossing Paths or Sharing Tracks?
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 07 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 19 March 2009, pp 323-350
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Summary
In recent years historians have begun to show renewed interest in studying ‘the material’ dimensions to urban life. This shift has opened up a space for new dialogues between historians and post-medieval archaeologists working on British cities. It off ers the potential for reassessing approaches to studying the urban past and for experimenting withfresh methodologies. Noting that archaeological perspectives have been largely absent from recent historical accounts of the modern metropolis, in this chapter we explore the potential for pursuing collaborative research that fuses archaeological evidence and thinking withother forms of historical practice to write material histories of London. The discussion divides into three parts. First, we sketch the post-war development of urban post-medieval archaeology in London, and the range of archaeological collections and excavation sites that relate to the Georgian and Victorian city. Second, we consider some of the ways in which the analysis of these sources might be used in interdisciplinary urban historiography, especially in the light of methodological approaches developed in North American and Australian urban archaeology. Third, we present a case study that explores how nineteenth-century household archaeologies in London might be developed, examining some of the complexities and challenges of integrating archaeological methods into the study of households and localities in the nineteenth-century metropolis. In conclusion we consider the prospects for the development of interdisciplinary approaches to the material remains of London’s modern past.
INTRODUCTION
Over the course of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, London developed to become one of the largest and most powerful cities in the world. According to some recent historical accounts, it can be characterised as a birthplace of modernity: a city where new identities, practices and power relations were forged and experienced. London was increasingly bound into mercantile, political and social networks that were global in scope, yet at the same time its local landscapes became evermore distinctive, as dramatic demographic and economic changes transformed the city. Whether as a place of shocking social and material inequality, as a centre of industrial production, as a nexus of imperial power and commerce, or as a site for experiencing new forms of consumption, leisure and pleasure, the metropolis has long provided historians with a means of peering into and making sense of much of that which is deemed to constitute modern life.