London pottery finds reveal Shoreditch agricultural past

Radiocarbon test of early Neolithic remains can pinpoint dates to a human life span 5,500 years ago

It is perhaps best-known for its hipsters, but long before Shoreditch became avant garde, it was a place of agriculture and farmers according to evidence from a radiocarbon dating technique that has revealed details about Neolithic London.

The technique proved that the most significant early Neolithic pottery discovered in London is 5,500 years old. It reveals for the first time that the city's prehistoric inhabitants led a less mobile, farming-based lifestyle than their hunter-gathering forebears.