Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T00:29:21.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bramcote Green, Bermondsey: a Bronze Age Trackway and Palaeo-Environmental Sequence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Christopher Thomas ,
James Rackham ,
A.J. Barham ,
N. Branch ,
J. Glorgi ,
D. Goodburn ,
J. Lowe ,
V. Neal ,
J. Rackham  and
D. Smith
...Show all authors
Christopher Thomas
Affiliation:
Museum of London Archaeological Service, Walker House, 87 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4AB
James Rackham
Affiliation:
25 Main Street, South Rauceby, Lincolnshire, NG34 8QG
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An archaeological evaluation and excavation were carried out prior to a housing development in 1992, at Bramcote Green, in the London Borough of Southwark. Up to 3 m of organic rich, alluvial clay silts were deposited during the late Glacial period between about 12,000 BP and 9000 BP. A wide, shallow channel flowing south towards the Thames cut through the clay silts during the early Holocene and was filled with a series of clay and peat layers. Between 6000 BP and 4000 BP fast moving water channels formed on the marshy ground on the east side of the site and broader channels on the sand and gravel outcrop on the west side of the site. A subsequent rise in water levels, possibly seasonal, deposited inorganic muds across most of the site until c. 3500 BP. Over the filled-in channel were laid two phases of a wooden trackway which may have been laid across the marsh between high ground to the south and Bermondsey Island to the north. The earlier trackway consisted of two parallel lines of alder logs held in place by alder stakes. The second consisted of a single line of oak logs with alder stakes along one side. Radiocarbon dating of the second trackway places it in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The site was covered by a thick layer of peat dated to the Late Bronze Age.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 62 , 1996 , pp. 221 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bramcote Green Archive reports:

Branch, N.J. & Lowe, JJ. 1994. Bramcote Green Redevelopment Archaeological Project 1992/3: Palynology

Giorgi, J. 1994. The Plant Remains from Bramcote Grove, Bermondsey.

Goodburn, D.M. 1993. Report on the Prehistoric Woodwork from Bramcote Grove.

Smith, D. 1993. The Coleoptera from Bramcote Grove, Bermondsey.

Thomas, C. 1992a. An Archaeological Evaluation of the Bramcote Green Redevelopment at Bramcote Grove SE1.

Thomas, C. 1992b. A Watching Brief of 18 Test Pits Carried Out at the Bramcote Green Site.

Thomas, C. 1993. Report on the Archaeological Work at Bramcote Green.

Tyers, I.G. 1994. Bramcote Green Prehistoric Wood Species Identification and Dendrochronology, report no. DEN8/94.

Wilkinson, K. 1993. The Molluscs from Bramcote Green.

Williamson, V. 1993. Interim Report on the Sedimentological Assessment of the Bramcote Green Site.

References:

Baillie, M.G.L. 1983. Belfast dendrochronology: the current situation. In Ottoway, B.S. (ed.), Archaeology, Dendrochronology and the Radiocarbon Calibration Curve, 15–24. Edinburgh: University Department of Archaeology, Occasional Publication 9.Google Scholar
Balfour-Browne, F. 1940. British Water Beetles. Vol.1. London: Ray Society.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Arnold, M., Fairbanks, R.G. & Hamelin, B. 1993. 230Th–234U and 14C ages obtained by mass spectrometry on corals. Radiocarbon 35, 191–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beasley, M. 1993. Beckton 3D Archaeological Evaluation. London: Newham Council unpublished archive report.Google Scholar
Bennett, K.D. 1988. Holocene pollen stratigraphy of central East Anglia, England, and comparison of pollen zones across the British Isles. New Phytologist 109, 237–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowsher, J. 1991. A burnt mound at Phoenix Wharf, south-east London. In Hodder, M.A. & Barfield, L.H. (eds), Burnt Mounds and Hot Stone Technology, 11–20.Google Scholar
Bowsher, J. 1993. Southwark Waterfronts, English Heritage project 53. London: unpublished MoLAS site archive report.Google Scholar
Boycott, A.E. 1936. The habitats of freshwater Mollusca in Britain. Journal of Animal Ecology 5, 116–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, J.M. & Hibbert, F.A. 1968. Prehistoric roads and tracks in Somerset, England. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34, 238–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, J.M. & Orme, B.J. 1976. The Meare Heath track: excavations of a Bronze Age structure in the Somerset levels. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 42, 293–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Densem, R. 1992. Revised Archaeological Project Design for Bramcote Green Redevelopment. London: unpublished MoLAS report.Google Scholar
Department of the Environment 1990. Archaeology and Planning. London: Department of the Environment Planning and Policy Guidance 16.Google Scholar
Devoy, R.J.N. 1979. Flandrian sea level changes and vegetational history of the lower Thames estuary. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 285, 355–406.Google Scholar
Drummond-Murray, J. 1994. Wolseley St, an Archaeological Evaluation. London: unpublished MoLAS report.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P.L. 1985. The Pleistocene History of the Middle Thames Valley. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Goodburn, D. forthcoming. The Building of the Later Roman Timber Quay in London.Google Scholar
Grainger, I. 1993. Alscot Rd, London SE1, an Archaeological Evaluation. London: unpublished MoLAS report.Google Scholar
Jones, H. 1988. Excavations at Bricklayers Arms. London: unpublished MoL site archive report.Google Scholar
Linick, T.W., Long, A., Damon, P.E. & Ferguson, C.W. 1986. High precision radiocarbon dating of the Bristlecone pine from 6554 to 5350 BC. Radiocarbon 28, 943–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, J.J. & Walker, M.J.C. 1987. Reconstructing Quaternary Environments, Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Mason, S. 1992. Preliminary Report on Archaeological Investigations at Abbey St/Neckinger, Bermondsey. London: unpublished MoLAS report.Google Scholar
Meddens, F. & Beasley, M. 1990. Wetland use in Rainham, Essex. London Archaeologist 6, 242–7.Google Scholar
Millett, M. & McGrail, S. 1987. The archaeology of the Hasholme logboat. Archaeological Journal 144, 69–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, G., Becker, B. & Qua, F. 1993. High-precision 14C measurement of German and Irish oaks to show the natural 14C variations from 7890–5000 BC, Radiocarbon 35, 93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, G. & Stuiver, M. 1993. High-precision bi-decadal calibration of the radiocarbon time-scale 500–2500 BC, Radiocarbon 35, 25–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilcher, J.R., Baillie, M.G.L., Schmidt, B. & Becker, B. 1984. A 7272-year tree-ring chronology for Westen Europe. Nature 312, 150–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rackham, J. 1994. Prehistory ‘in’ the lower Thames floodplain, London Archaeologist 7, 191–5.Google Scholar
Raftery, B. 1991. Recent developments in Irish wetland research, 19–36. In Coles, B. (ed.), The Wetland Revolution in Prehistory. Exeter: Prehistoric Society & Wetland Archaeological Research Group, WARP Occasional Paper 4.Google Scholar
Scaife, R.G. 1988. The elm decline in the pollen record of south east England and its relationship to early agriculture. In Jones, M. (ed.), Archaeology and the Flora of the British Isles, 21–34. Oxford: University Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Pearson, G. 1993. High-precision bi-decadal calibration of the radiocarbon time-scale AD 1950–500 BC. Radiocarbon 35, 1–23 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyers, I.G. 1988. The prehistoric peat layers (Tilbury IV). In Hinton, P.J. (ed.), Excavations in Southwark 1973–76 Lambeth 1973–79, 5–12. London: London & Middlesex report. Archaeological Society and Southwark Archaeological Society Joint publication 3.Google Scholar
Webber, M. 1989. An Archaeological Evaluation at Alaska Works, Grange Rd, SE1. London: unpublished MoLAS report.Google Scholar