Reeve Jez, Adams Max. The Spitalfields Project: Volume 1: The Archaeology: Across the Styx

Council for British Archaeology, 1993. — 480 p. — (CBA Research Reports 85).The excavations at Christ Church, Spitalfields unearthed c 1,000 burials from 1729 to 1852. Their interrelationship and significance has been examined in detail in seven chapters. Chapter 1 recounts the history of the site from 1714, covers the political machinations of church and state, the social implications of taxation and labour, the ‘hidden agenda’ of intramural burial and the construction of the church and the unreliable builders thereof. A description of the varied purposes and uses of the church down to the present day brings the history of the site into an interesting and living perspective for the present day reader.
In Chapter 2 the aims of the project are laid out, to dig beneath the ceremony and place the historical site in an archaeological context. It also describes the pioneering methodology of this first post-medieval crypt excavation which had to cope with unique difficulties such as the threat of smallpox and lead-poisoning. It forms an essential text for any future investigations of this nature and provides a template for the peculiar personnel and logistical management requirements. It also outlines the method of pro-forma data recording. The central chapter gives a detailed description, with copious illustrations, of the pattern of depositional and post-depositional processes which led to the filling of the crypt.