The Post-Roman Foreshore and the Origins of the Late Anglo-Saxon Waterfront and Dock of Æthelred’s Hithe: Excavations at Bull Wharf, City of London

Abstract

Evidence recovered on the site known from late ninth-century charters as Æthelred’s hithe illustrates successive phases in the early development of London as an international port. While two middle Anglo-Saxon female skeletons were found in foreshore deposits, coins and other metalwork, along with the remains of gangplank trestles, suggest the site was a trading shore from at least the later ninth century. Riverside construction followed by the late tenth century: several low waterfront embankments date to the late tenth and early eleventh century, the waterfront was divided into regular plots and timber buildings erected. Reused nautical and building timbers include fragments of a Frisian ship and an arcaded building.