December 23, 2025 • 10 mins
Mudlarking means sifting through riverbank muck in hopes of finding lost or discarded historical artefacts. Learn how it works, especially in the River Thames, in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology/mudlarking.htm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren
Bogelbaum here. Sifting through the junk stuck in the mud
of the Thames may sound unpleasant to some, but in
doing so, one is almost guaranteed to find a curious
and possibly valuable artifact. Uncovering a piece of Roman pottery,
(00:26):
a sixteen fifties era tobacco pipe, or a small, well
preserved wax seal dating back to the time of King Richard.
The third is just the kind of thing that keeps
mudlarkers mudlarking. Mudlarking is essentially digging through exposed riverbanks for
lost and forgotten objects, small treasures among shoreline rubbish. A
(00:48):
dirty job, yes, but a fun one for hobbyists and archaeologists.
For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Work.
Spoke with Maryland heritage scholar Henry M. Miller, PhD. He said,
it's the excitement. You never know what you're going to find.
It's just like all of archaeology. It's the thrill of
(01:09):
the discovery. Oh what am I going to find next?
And what is it going to tell me about people
in the past. That's the exciting thing. The concept of
mud larking originated in these seventeen or eighteen hundreds and
referred to a time when low income people, including kids,
would pour over the shoreline of the Thames at low tide,
collecting lost coins if they were lucky, but also spare nails,
(01:32):
pieces of coal, and anything else they might sell or trade.
There was and still is plenty to find there. For
thousands of years, the Thames served as a dumping ground.
A miller explained, people would throw their daily garbage in
the river and the tide would distribute it and it
would essentially disappear from sight. It was nasty, especially as
(01:56):
London's population grew and the Thames became increasingly it. Sixty
years ago, the Thames was so polluted from centuries of
dumping that it was declared dead. Since then, intense efforts
have been made to clean up the river, and it's
now considered one of the world's cleanest, but its polluted
(02:16):
past has made it one of the best places to
go mudlarking. The Thames holds literally thousands of years of
trash from the prehistoric era to the modern day, and
as the old adage goes, one man's trash is another
man's treasure. Mudlarkers can dig up a host of interesting artifacts,
(02:37):
including things like Venetian glass beads, a tudor money boxes,
medieval pilgrim badges, and sixteenth century shoes. Dumping all that
stuff into the Thames certainly got it out of sight,
but it didn't really disappear. It settled into the mud
at the river's bottom. Durable materials like pottery, nails, tobacco pipes,
(02:58):
and glass bottles get to humbled around a bit, but
last pretty well, along with some softer materials that may
surprise you. But Miller said, what's cool is there's an
anaerobic condition, which means things like wood and bone and
cloth and leather actually survive, sometimes in pretty pristine condition.
I found the top to a wine bottle, probably from
(03:20):
the late seventeen hundreds, with the cork still intact. He
visited in twenty sixteen to help create a comparative collection
of known London artifacts for archaeological analysis of early American sites.
The tides of the Thames create a perfect situation for
unearthing artifacts that many other waterways don't have. For starters,
(03:43):
its tide has a surprisingly large range. It can rise
and recede up to twenty four feet that's around seven meters,
with two low tides and two high tides every day,
leaving behind a vast swath of exposed river bottom at
each low tide. Here in the US, like the Hudson,
do experienced tides, but it might only drop about three
(04:04):
feet or a little less than a meter. The Thames
tide also comes in fast, upward of five miles an
hour that's about eight kilometers an hour. This enables the
current to scour the river bed and push out a
literal treasure trove of valuables toward the shoreline, where they're
left behind as the tide more gently recedes. Of course,
(04:26):
technically you can mudlark the shores of any river in
the world, but if you want to mudlark in the Thames,
you've got to get a permit from the Port of
London Authority. That process takes at least four weeks and
costs about thirty five pounds a day for a standard license.
With that license, you're allowed to dig about three inches
or seven and a half centimeters into the mud and
(04:48):
are expected to replace the ground you disturb to help
preserve the environment and food chain. For the river's wildlife,
protecting the foreshores, natural and agricultural resources, and keeping mud
larkers and other citygoers safe is of utmost importance. Thus
there are some zones where digging isn't allowed. Restricted areas
(05:09):
include public infrastructure like passenger piers and gas pipelines of
plus historic sites like the shore along the Tower of
London and Queen Hive, which is a former Roman dock
area that was later developed by the Saxon king Alfred
the Great in the seven hundred CE. No permits are
required to mudlark in the US. You may find objects
(05:30):
of interest, but won't find the quantity and only very
rarely the quality that you can find along the Thames.
Miller said, we don't have, unfortunately, massive quantities of Roman
artifacts exposed here. Regardless of where you mudlark, you may
overlook a valuable artifact as junk or mistakeo worthless piece
(05:51):
of debris for a valuable treasure. Finding lost treasures takes
a trained eye and a good working knowledge of antiquities.
Remember that wine bottle stopper Miller had the thrill of
finding during his mudlarking excursion in the Thames. Some might
have assumed it was trash, but Miller knew it was
from the late seventeen hundreds because of the style of stopper.
(06:13):
He explained, on handmade bottles from that time, there's an
applied piece of glass just below the opening at the
top called a string rim. That's where they tie a
cord or wired to secure the cork in place. The
style has changed over time, so knowing the style of
the string rim, that's how I was able to date
the wine stopper. Luckily, for those of us who aren't
(06:36):
professional archaeologists, England has a system for identifying found objects.
Your permit to Mudlark allows you access to collect, but
it also explicitly says that you must give any fines
over to an authority for evaluation. That authority is your
local Finds Liaison officer, who has access to experts who
(06:56):
can help identify what a found object is. These objects
are also recorded in the Portable Antiquity Scheme, which is
a project of the British Museum to track all historical
artifacts that are found in the Thames and other locations
across the UK. Miller said England has a Treasure's law
on stuff like gold or silver or something like a
(07:18):
complete Roman sword. Stuff that's really rare because that's the
property of the people of England. If someone does find
something of great value, museums have the right to purchase
the item, for which the finder would be compensated. However,
it's really lucky to hit that kind of jackpot, Miller said.
Things like tobacco pipes, pieces of a bottle, a pig's jaw,
(07:41):
a specimen of medieval pottery, or a thimble are so
common and such domestic debris that museums already have thousands
or millions of those specimens in their collection. If an
item is reviewed and deemed not to be a treasure,
the mudlarker can have it back. In the US, if
you find something and are curious about its value, you
(08:03):
can contact your state archaeologist or an archaeologist at your
local college or university. The rules aren't as explicit here,
but it's still a good thing to do, especially if
you think you might have something uncommon on your hands.
A university or museum might be interested in purchasing it,
and it's really only polite, Miller said. As an archaeologist,
(08:25):
I must emphasize that for things that are exceptionally rare
that are part of our collective history. It really would
be appropriate to notify the State Historical Trust or archaeologist
about them. Trudging along riverbeds may sound harmless enough, but
mudlarking can be dangerous, especially along the Thames with such
(08:45):
tidal action. People have become so caught up and looking
for objects that some have become stranded and swept off
by the tide and had to be rescued. Other hazards
include slipping on rocks, getting hit by speedboats or garbage barges.
We're syncing into mudholes. You may also be at risk
for Vile's disease nasty bacterial infection that can spread through
(09:08):
rat urine in the water. Whether you find that an
acceptable risk or not is up to you, but if
you don't already have a permit, it may be a
while before it matters. The part of London Authority only
allows four thousand standard permits to be in play at
any given time, each vallid for one year. Those are
(09:28):
currently all accounted for. They do have a wait list,
but it's currently capped at ten thousand. Perspective Mudlarkers, Today's
episode is based on the article mudlarkers pull historical artifacts
out of riverbank muck on HowStuffWorks dot Com written by
Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is production of by Heart
(09:51):
Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is
produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you list
and your favorite shows
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren
Bogelbaum here. Sifting through the junk stuck in the mud
of the Thames may sound unpleasant to some, but in
doing so, one is almost guaranteed to find a curious
and possibly valuable artifact. Uncovering a piece of Roman pottery,
(00:26):
a sixteen fifties era tobacco pipe, or a small, well
preserved wax seal dating back to the time of King Richard.
The third is just the kind of thing that keeps
mudlarkers mudlarking. Mudlarking is essentially digging through exposed riverbanks for
lost and forgotten objects, small treasures among shoreline rubbish. A
(00:48):
dirty job, yes, but a fun one for hobbyists and archaeologists.
For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Work.
Spoke with Maryland heritage scholar Henry M. Miller, PhD. He said,
it's the excitement. You never know what you're going to find.
It's just like all of archaeology. It's the thrill of
(01:09):
the discovery. Oh what am I going to find next?
And what is it going to tell me about people
in the past. That's the exciting thing. The concept of
mud larking originated in these seventeen or eighteen hundreds and
referred to a time when low income people, including kids,
would pour over the shoreline of the Thames at low tide,
collecting lost coins if they were lucky, but also spare nails,
(01:32):
pieces of coal, and anything else they might sell or trade.
There was and still is plenty to find there. For
thousands of years, the Thames served as a dumping ground.
A miller explained, people would throw their daily garbage in
the river and the tide would distribute it and it
would essentially disappear from sight. It was nasty, especially as
(01:56):
London's population grew and the Thames became increasingly it. Sixty
years ago, the Thames was so polluted from centuries of
dumping that it was declared dead. Since then, intense efforts
have been made to clean up the river, and it's
now considered one of the world's cleanest, but its polluted
(02:16):
past has made it one of the best places to
go mudlarking. The Thames holds literally thousands of years of
trash from the prehistoric era to the modern day, and
as the old adage goes, one man's trash is another
man's treasure. Mudlarkers can dig up a host of interesting artifacts,
(02:37):
including things like Venetian glass beads, a tudor money boxes,
medieval pilgrim badges, and sixteenth century shoes. Dumping all that
stuff into the Thames certainly got it out of sight,
but it didn't really disappear. It settled into the mud
at the river's bottom. Durable materials like pottery, nails, tobacco pipes,
(02:58):
and glass bottles get to humbled around a bit, but
last pretty well, along with some softer materials that may
surprise you. But Miller said, what's cool is there's an
anaerobic condition, which means things like wood and bone and
cloth and leather actually survive, sometimes in pretty pristine condition.
I found the top to a wine bottle, probably from
(03:20):
the late seventeen hundreds, with the cork still intact. He
visited in twenty sixteen to help create a comparative collection
of known London artifacts for archaeological analysis of early American sites.
The tides of the Thames create a perfect situation for
unearthing artifacts that many other waterways don't have. For starters,
(03:43):
its tide has a surprisingly large range. It can rise
and recede up to twenty four feet that's around seven meters,
with two low tides and two high tides every day,
leaving behind a vast swath of exposed river bottom at
each low tide. Here in the US, like the Hudson,
do experienced tides, but it might only drop about three
(04:04):
feet or a little less than a meter. The Thames
tide also comes in fast, upward of five miles an
hour that's about eight kilometers an hour. This enables the
current to scour the river bed and push out a
literal treasure trove of valuables toward the shoreline, where they're
left behind as the tide more gently recedes. Of course,
(04:26):
technically you can mudlark the shores of any river in
the world, but if you want to mudlark in the Thames,
you've got to get a permit from the Port of
London Authority. That process takes at least four weeks and
costs about thirty five pounds a day for a standard license.
With that license, you're allowed to dig about three inches
or seven and a half centimeters into the mud and
(04:48):
are expected to replace the ground you disturb to help
preserve the environment and food chain. For the river's wildlife,
protecting the foreshores, natural and agricultural resources, and keeping mud
larkers and other citygoers safe is of utmost importance. Thus
there are some zones where digging isn't allowed. Restricted areas
(05:09):
include public infrastructure like passenger piers and gas pipelines of
plus historic sites like the shore along the Tower of
London and Queen Hive, which is a former Roman dock
area that was later developed by the Saxon king Alfred
the Great in the seven hundred CE. No permits are
required to mudlark in the US. You may find objects
(05:30):
of interest, but won't find the quantity and only very
rarely the quality that you can find along the Thames.
Miller said, we don't have, unfortunately, massive quantities of Roman
artifacts exposed here. Regardless of where you mudlark, you may
overlook a valuable artifact as junk or mistakeo worthless piece
(05:51):
of debris for a valuable treasure. Finding lost treasures takes
a trained eye and a good working knowledge of antiquities.
Remember that wine bottle stopper Miller had the thrill of
finding during his mudlarking excursion in the Thames. Some might
have assumed it was trash, but Miller knew it was
from the late seventeen hundreds because of the style of stopper.
(06:13):
He explained, on handmade bottles from that time, there's an
applied piece of glass just below the opening at the
top called a string rim. That's where they tie a
cord or wired to secure the cork in place. The
style has changed over time, so knowing the style of
the string rim, that's how I was able to date
the wine stopper. Luckily, for those of us who aren't
(06:36):
professional archaeologists, England has a system for identifying found objects.
Your permit to Mudlark allows you access to collect, but
it also explicitly says that you must give any fines
over to an authority for evaluation. That authority is your
local Finds Liaison officer, who has access to experts who
(06:56):
can help identify what a found object is. These objects
are also recorded in the Portable Antiquity Scheme, which is
a project of the British Museum to track all historical
artifacts that are found in the Thames and other locations
across the UK. Miller said England has a Treasure's law
on stuff like gold or silver or something like a
(07:18):
complete Roman sword. Stuff that's really rare because that's the
property of the people of England. If someone does find
something of great value, museums have the right to purchase
the item, for which the finder would be compensated. However,
it's really lucky to hit that kind of jackpot, Miller said.
Things like tobacco pipes, pieces of a bottle, a pig's jaw,
(07:41):
a specimen of medieval pottery, or a thimble are so
common and such domestic debris that museums already have thousands
or millions of those specimens in their collection. If an
item is reviewed and deemed not to be a treasure,
the mudlarker can have it back. In the US, if
you find something and are curious about its value, you
(08:03):
can contact your state archaeologist or an archaeologist at your
local college or university. The rules aren't as explicit here,
but it's still a good thing to do, especially if
you think you might have something uncommon on your hands.
A university or museum might be interested in purchasing it,
and it's really only polite, Miller said. As an archaeologist,
(08:25):
I must emphasize that for things that are exceptionally rare
that are part of our collective history. It really would
be appropriate to notify the State Historical Trust or archaeologist
about them. Trudging along riverbeds may sound harmless enough, but
mudlarking can be dangerous, especially along the Thames with such
(08:45):
tidal action. People have become so caught up and looking
for objects that some have become stranded and swept off
by the tide and had to be rescued. Other hazards
include slipping on rocks, getting hit by speedboats or garbage barges.
We're syncing into mudholes. You may also be at risk
for Vile's disease nasty bacterial infection that can spread through
(09:08):
rat urine in the water. Whether you find that an
acceptable risk or not is up to you, but if
you don't already have a permit, it may be a
while before it matters. The part of London Authority only
allows four thousand standard permits to be in play at
any given time, each vallid for one year. Those are
(09:28):
currently all accounted for. They do have a wait list,
but it's currently capped at ten thousand. Perspective Mudlarkers, Today's
episode is based on the article mudlarkers pull historical artifacts
out of riverbank muck on HowStuffWorks dot Com written by
Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is production of by Heart
(09:51):
Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is
produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you list
and your favorite shows
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