{"id":22598,"date":"2025-02-21T09:02:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T10:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22598"},"modified":"2025-02-21T10:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T10:30:15","slug":"a-boneyard-along-the-thames-river-reveals-londons-ancient-burials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22598","title":{"rendered":"A Boneyard Along the Thames River Reveals London\u2019s Ancient Burials"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers have found dozens of human bones on the banks of the iconic river, many of them thousands of years old.<\/p>\n

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The banks of the Thames River have hosted human settlements for thousands of years<\/a>, from Neolithic huts<\/a> to the soaring skyscrapers of London. Evidence of bygone civilizations has been steadily deposited on the river\u2019s muddy bottom for modern archaeologists to mine.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers in London have dated dozens of bones dredged from the river, creating a comprehensive database that has dispelled longstanding theories about why the river came to serve as the final resting place for so many people. The findings<\/a> were published in the journal Antiquity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really fabulous, actually, in lots of different ways,\u201d said Thomas Booth, an expert in ancient genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London who was not involved in the project. Dr. Booth said it was \u201cby far the most comprehensive effort\u201d to date the human remains found in the Thames.<\/p>\n

The river\u2019s mud, which lacks oxygen, is a sealant that helps preserve remains. (If oxygen is present, bones decompose much faster<\/a>.) And because there is so much activity on the Thames, its mud is constantly yielding historical treasures. In 2018, workers building a new sewage tunnel along the riverbank discovered an intact 500-year-old skeleton with leather boots still on<\/a> its feet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For the new study, researchers dated bones by measuring the amount of a carbon isotope in each one. This method, known as radiocarbon dating<\/a>, had previously been used to determine the age of 19 samples. This time, the researchers tested 28 river samples \u2014 all from skulls \u2014 that had never been dated before. They also tested two skulls from a decades-old investigation<\/a> to see if the results still held up (they did).<\/p>\n

The researchers also included some samples that had been found by \u201cmudlarks<\/a>,\u201d amateur archaeologists who are deputized by London officials to scour the Thames. (It\u2019s a popular hobby; some 10,000 people are on the mudlark waiting list<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Researchers have found dozens of human bones on the banks of the iconic river, many of them thousands of years old.The banks of the Thames River have hosted human settlements for thousands of years, from Neolithic huts to the soaring skyscrapers of London. Evidence of bygone civilizations has been steadily deposited on the river\u2019s muddy bottom for modern archaeologists to mine.Now, researchers in London have dated dozens of bones dredged from the river, creating a comprehensive database that has dispelled longstanding theories about why the river came to serve as the final resting place for so many people. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity.\u201cIt\u2019s really fabulous, actually, in lots of different ways,\u201d said Thomas Booth, an expert in ancient genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London who was not involved in the project. Dr. Booth said it was \u201cby far the most comprehensive effort\u201d to date the human remains found in the Thames.The river\u2019s mud, which lacks oxygen, is a sealant that helps preserve remains. (If oxygen is present, bones decompose much faster.) And because there is so much activity on the Thames, its mud is constantly yielding historical treasures. In 2018, workers building a new sewage tunnel along the riverbank discovered an intact 500-year-old skeleton with leather boots still on its feet.For the new study, researchers dated bones by measuring the amount of a carbon isotope in each one. This method, known as radiocarbon dating, had previously been used to determine the age of 19 samples. This time, the researchers tested 28 river samples \u2014 all from skulls \u2014 that had never been dated before. They also tested two skulls from a decades-old investigation to see if the results still held up (they did).The researchers also included some samples that had been found by \u201cmudlarks,\u201d amateur archaeologists who are deputized by London officials to scour the Thames. (It\u2019s a popular hobby; some 10,000 people are on the mudlark waiting list).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22600,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22601,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22598\/revisions\/22601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}