Here are the objects.

1. Roman pottery

This fragment almost looks like a sample of something you might buy in a posh homeware shop – but it actually dates all the way back to the 2nd Century AD, when it formed part of the rim of a Roman cooking pot or bowl. This piece was found near the centre of the city, right where the Roman city of Londinium was settled, in around AD43.

London in the 1st century was far from the hospitable place it is today. In fact, the Thames (and the access it afforded from the sea) was probably one of the only reasons the Romans decided to stick around there in the first place.

Londinium soon became a bustling port – and that’s why many of the items on the Thames foreshore that date from this period originally hail from overseas. This particular shard, though, is from much closer to home. It’s made of clay dug in the Thames Estuary.

2. Pins