Museum of London

I went to the Museum of London. Beneath the city are layers of history. 

• This is a piece of the city wall, a defensive structure that surrounded the old city. The bottom of the wall was built in Roman times. A new wall was built directly on top of that, hundreds of years later.

• The  Roman Emperor Claudius brought elephants when he invaded Britain around AD 50. This was to impress and intimidate the native tribes. In Lord of the Rings, Samwise dreams of  seeing an oliphaunt, and is amazed when he  sees them being ridden to battle by the Haradrim. I wonder if JRR Tolkien got the idea of the oliphaunts in the Battle of Pelennor Fields from this historical event.

• I learnt that half of London died in the plague, known as 'The Black Death'.

• A new rail tunnel is being dug under the city. As the digging progresses, many artefacts are being unearthed. One of them is this patu from Aotearoa. How do you think it got there?