Archaeologists Found 6,000-Year-Old Artifacts Under the Palace of Westminster

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Popular Mechanics
Archaeologists Found 6,000-Year-Old Artifacts Under One of England’s Most Hallowed Buildings
Tim Newcomb
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM EST
3 min read



Ancient Artifacts Found Under an English Landmark Jordi Salas - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*Archaeologists exploring the estate at the Palace of Westminster have found artifacts stretching 6,000 years into history.

*The team uncovered stone tools likely from around 4300 B.C.E.

*A stash of over 60 flint tools were likely part of a hunting and fishing community.


Tucked under London’s Palace of Westminster— one of the most famous structures in the city and home to the Houses of Parliament—archaeologists uncovered artifacts dating back 6,000 years, including stone tools from around 4300 B.C.E. that mark the historic area as home to a community of fishers and hunters.

As part of a three-year archaeological investigation program led by the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, the team drilled 14 trial pits and 10 geoarchaeological boreholes on the site, including some in spots known to historically house industrial activity.

The key finds feature more than 60 struck flint flakes, a Stone Age style of tool shaped by smashing rock together, including one tool worked carefully that could be from the late Mesolithic period. The team also found artifacts stretching through time, including a medieval leather boot, shoe soles, and straps roughly 800 years old; fragments of intricately decorated clay tobacco pipes likely used by stonemasons working on the site after an 1834 fire; a Roman alter fragment over 2,000 years old; an ornate lead badge shaped like a flowering heart, common for wedding rings and seals in the 14th and 15th centuries; a 19th-century five-pint beer jug; a medieval floor tile used at Westminster; and a stone crucible used for heating up lead that may have been instrumental in helping create the window frames of the medieval palace.

“The initial finds from archaeological investigations confirm the richness of Westminster as a site,” David Brock, head of the Government Historic Estates Unit at Historic England, said in a statement. “They testify to the variety of human experience on this site.”

The effort is happening as the government prepares for the restoration and renewal of the palace. “A huge amount of work is going on to understand more about the building and the thousands of years of history underneath the home of parliament as we know it today,” Judith Cummins, deputy speaker of the Commons and R&R Program Board Chair, said in a statement.

Simon Thurley, archaeologist and chair of the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority Board, said in a statement that the first trial excavations have already revealed things the expert didn’t know, while confirming things they suspected. “It is the start of a fascinating and important journey of discovery,” he said.

Along with the smaller artifacts, the team located the substantial remains of the medieval Lesser Hall, also known as White Hall. Dating to 1167, the two-story hall was a royal dining space that was instrumental in parliamentary events. Historians had believed that the hall was damaged in the Great Fire of 1834, but now they understand the hall’s stone walls survived the blaze. It was restored, re-roofed, and used until demolition in 1851.

“The locating of the Lesser Hall walls is particularly exciting,” Brock said. “As this work continues, we hope it will further expand our understanding of the surviving medieval buildings, especially Westminster Hall, and that the discoveries will enrich our knowledge of this World Heritage site.”

The archaeological investigations continue across the state, specifically targeting places where future work is expected.

“These exciting discoveries and finds are all contributing to the national story and historical knowledge of the Palace of Westminster site and the World Heritage Site,” Diane Abrams, archaeology lead with the authority, said in a statement. “To see rare evidence for prehistoric flint tool making on undisturbed sand deposits in this part of Thorney Island, where parliament now stands, is fantastic. Uncovering the surviving remains of the medieval Lesser Hall wall along with foundations of former parliamentary structures is also very special.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/archaeologists-found-6-000-old-140000567.html