ARCHÆOLOGY

PAUL SIEVEKING looks at the latest London discoveries, plus unusual skulls from China and Ecuador

LONDON FINDS

Recent finds in east London have extended the capital’s history by more than three millennia. Up until now, the birth of London has usually been seen only in terms of its establishment as a town at the time of the Roman conquest in the mid-first century AD; but archæological investigations in Shoreditch, just 50ft (15m) outside the northern boundary of the historic City of London, have unearthed evidence of what appears to have been a ceremonial site dating to about 3600 BC. Traces of food on 436 potsherds from between 25 and 35 cooking and other vessels from the base of an extensive rubbish pit enable highly accurate dating based on chemical changes in fat deposits. Some pots were used for processing milk, probably in order to make cheese, butter and possibly alcoholic yoghurt-type beverages like central Asian and Steppeland Kumis or Kefir. A second type was used for making meat