An Early Saxon wooden platform on the River Lea at Edmonton, London

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of excavations at Glover Drive, Edmonton, at a site located on the west side of the Lea Valley. In the past the valley comprised a spread of shifting channels, most of which are now silted and buried. Excavations within the floodplain revealed a sequence of deposits relating to former channels. These provided evidence for the past environment, anthropogenic activities and management of the landscape from the Mesolithic period to the present. An unusual timber platform and two roundwood stake-built structures, dated by dendrochronology to shortly after AD 472, were found within a small channel on the edge of a sand bank in a backwater fen area. A series of ditches on the higher ground to the west of the structures were also tentatively dated to the Early Saxon period. The timber structures were probably short-lived as the site became inundated, leading to the wooden structures and ditches being buried beneath thick alluvial clay. The Early Saxon wooden platform is the first of its kind to be excavated, recorded and dated in England and the article discusses its possible function, placing it into its temporal and spatial context.

Acknowledgments

AOC Archaeology would like to thank IKEA Developments for their funding of the project and John Samuels Archaeological Consultants for commissioning the work. AOC Archaeology would also like to thank Kim Stabler of the English Heritage Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service for her advice and support. The authors would like to thank the AOC Archaeology excavation team: David Britchfield (site supervisor), Jenny Giddings, Andy Leonard and Helen MacQuarrie. Thanks also to Jonathan Moller for the illustrations in this article (from original wood illustrations by Damian Goodburn) and to Ben Shapiro and Adriana Taylor for their help with the cleaning of the timber samples. The authors would also like to acknowledge and thank those who contributed to the post-excavation process and the production of this article: Graham Spurr (Geoarchaeology), Ian Tyers (Dendrochronology and Wood Species ID), Lyn Blackmore/Charlotte Thompson (pottery), Sylvia Warman (animal bone), Tony Grey (flint), Hilary Major (stone), Nigel Cameron (diatoms), David Smith (insect remains), Pam Grinter (plant remains), Gordon Cook (SUERC radiocarbon dating). Rebecca Haslam, Helen Chittock and Anne Crone edited the text; Anne Crone also contributed to the discussion on the parallels with Scottish and Irish crannogs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the IKEA Developments.