Roman London (The Archaeology of London)

Precious little of Roman London survives and the destruction of Roman levels continues fast as new office foundations are sunk ever deeper into ancient levels. In recent years the close attention of the archaeologists of the Museum of London, encouraged by the co-operation of city developers, has allowed the recording of much that is being lost. From 1986 to 1988 work was started on 142 archaeological sites in the City, and many others were dug in the neighbouring boroughs. Every year new information and material is added to the stores of the Museum of London. Far too much new data is coming in for it all to be studied properly, with much being stored against the day that time and money can be found to permit more leisurely analysis. The first purpose of this book is to bring together as much as possible of this new information. It is also written with certain specific problems in mind. Much of the fascination of Roman London derives from its history of extremes - it burst into life with extraordinary vigour and quickly became one of the largest cities in the Roman west but boom seems rapidly to have turned to bust. How could a city grow so fast, change so much and fall so far? These are the questions that this work attempts to address. First Published in 2004.Precious little of Roman London survives and the destruction of Roman levels continues fast as new office foundations are sunk ever deeper into ancient levels. In recent years the close attention of the archaeologists of the Museum of London, encouraged by the cooperation of City developers, has allowed the detailed recording of much that is being lost. In just four years, from 1986 to 1989, work was started on about 200 archaeological sites in the City, and many others were dug in the neighbouring boroughs. Every year a mountain of new information and material is added to the stores of the Museum of London. The first purpose of this book is to bring together as much as possible of this new information, in the hope that it will allow progress to be assessed and new questions asked. This book draws extensively on the results of the latest work to present a challenging new account of the rise and fall of one of the principal towns of the Roman empire. Dominic Perring. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [133]-143) And Index.