5 bizarre findings from London's Crossrail dig

5 bizarre findings from London's Crossrail dig

5 bizarre findings from London's Crossrail dig

Crossrail’s 26-mile tunnelling marathon is done, with more than 10,000 artefacts, from bones to boats to bison, dug up in the process. ShortList sifts the hoard.

Liverpool Street

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Archaeologists have so far pulled up nearly 3,000 skeletons (of an expected 3,500) from the 450-year-old Bedlam graveyard under Liverpool Street station. These include the remains of Dr John Lamb (accused of rape and black magic before being killed by a mob), Robert Lockyer (executed by Oliver Cromwell) and a Lord Mayor. 


Woolwich

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Three 19th century cannons were uncovered on the site of an old ordnance storage area. 


Canary Wharf

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Amber is rare in Britain, but the largest and most-likely oldest piece ever found, at roughly 55 million years, was unearthed under a dock bed at Canary Wharf. 


Canning Town

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Tunnellers found a piece of a Thames barge dating back to the 1200s, as well as evidence of ancient docks. 


Royal Oak

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Bison, mammoth and prehistoric reindeer bones were unearthed in what used to be a river channel. They died out 10,000 years ago. 

(Images: Crossrail)

Marc Chacksfield
Content Director

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.