Discovery Beneath Westminster: Six Thousand Years of History Under the Houses of Parliament
Most people picture the Palace of Westminster as a symbol of modern Britain, a place of politics, debate and national identity. Yet the ground beneath it has revealed something far older and far more surprising. Archaeologists working on a major restoration project have uncovered evidence that people were living, working, and marking this place with meaning for more than 6,000 years. Finds include Mesolithic tools left by hunter-gatherers, Roman artefacts from a time when London was a frontier settlement, Medieval remains linked to the first royal buildings on the site, and a remarkably well-preserved twelfth-century hall hidden below the modern structure It means the seat of government stands above one of the oldest continuously used sites in the entire country. Westminster is not simply a political stage. It is a layered landscape of human activity stretching back to a time long before kings, parliaments or written history. For me, it raises a fascinating idea. How many places that feel modern are actually ancient beneath the surface? How many cities still stand on memories they never acknowledge So here is the question for you: What other modern places do you think hide deep archaeological histories? And have you ever visited somewhere that felt older than the world around it? https://archaeology.org/news/2025/12/05/dig-uncovers-6000-years-of-history-beneath-palace-of-westminster/?utm_source=chatgpt.com