Museum of London - Archaeology

Women making the Olympics is the brainchild of London Assembly Member for North East London, Jennette Arnold, who came up with the idea for the calendar after visiting women working on the development. Photographer Janie Airey captured the work of women on the Olympic Park in a range of roles. Alongside Jane Corcoran, the women featured in the calendar include a plumbing apprentice, an ecologist, a health and safety officer, and a security guard.

75 copies of the calendar were auctioned at an event at Museum in Docklands on 11 March, with proceeds from the sale going to the Helen Bamber Foundation (external link), a human-rights organisation.

From 2003 to 2008, MOLA, in partnership with Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA), provided the pre-planning advice on the 2012 Olympics development, as well as the archaeological fieldwork and built-heritage recording which emerged from the pre-planning process. Work was carried out for Capita Symonds, who were project managing on behalf of the London Development Agency (and later the Olympic Delivery Authority).

Jane Corcoran and Tessa Jowell MP at the 11 March event

Geoarchaeology and environmental sampling played a vital role in the extensive fieldwork subsequently undertaken. A geoarchaeological team of two to five people was on site almost continuously for two years. The results from monitoring geotechnical boreholes were used to build deposit models, which produced preliminary reconstructions of past landscapes of the Lower Lea Valley. This information was used to target areas for evaluation, as areas of high archaeological potential could be identified. These methods aided the finding of a range of prehistoric and historic occupation features from prehistoric cremations, pits and ditches on islands within the floodplain to a Victorian boat and wattle revetments in abandoned river channels.

The sediments themselves revealed the migration and abandonment of channels and episodes of severe flooding. Furthermore, they revealed the transformation of the natural prehistoric landscape of freshwater streams flowing across a wooded floodplain between low shifting islands into one where the historic river, now tidal, was manipulated by people. 

The photographs from the calendar went on display at the Museum of London Docklands to mark International Women's Day and will be there until 2 May 2010.

View some of the images from the exhibition on the BBC website