But finding a piece of the past is just the beginning. We took a look behind the scenes at MOLA’s London warehouse, where the archaeologists clean, prepare, label and study every coin, pottery segment, bone fragment and seed, filling in the picture of London’s nearly 2000-year history, piece by piece.

Items arriving from MOLA’s active digs are assessed, and may be rinsed and cleaned to aid with preservation and study. In some cases, though, cleaning may do more harm than good: some objects are too fragile, or contain materials such as blood or soot that can help reveal more about their origins.

Here, archaeological processor Alba Moyano Alcántara carefully washes mud from human remains.

Once objects have been cleaned, they are placed in MOLA’s warm drying room. Here, archaeological processor Christos Gerontinis removes a selection of human remains that are ready for cataloguing.

These pottery fragments were found at the Landmark Place dig. Clean, dry fragments are placed in archival bags and stored for later study by one of MOLA’s pottery experts. Marks, stamps and material composition all help to identify and date objects, however small or fragmented.

A day in the life of a London��archaeologist:��Meet Sadie Watson

MOLA has numerous specialists, each an expert in their field. Here, post-medieval pottery specialist Nigel Jeffries weighs fragments of decorated pottery. Pieces are often found in abundance and can be useful in identifying when and how a site was used. Pottery vessels were often used to transport food and goods, so their provenance can reveal much about a civilisation’s links with the rest of the world.

In London, human remains are fairly common, too. It is the job of the bone experts to identify and record them. Here senior human osteologist Don Walker works on an almost complete skeleton. During our visit Walker identifies the sex and approximate age when this person died: from the pelvis, teeth, skull shape and bone development he can tell that this is the skeleton of a woman in her mid to late 20s.

Coins are often found at London digs, including authentic Roman currency. But even in the 3rd century AD, counterfeiters were at work. This silver-plated denarius coin depicting Emperor Severus Alexander is a fake. For MOLA coin expert, or numismatist, Julian Bowsher, it’s the copper deposits that gave the game away.

The study of plant remains is essential for understanding the food, diet, farming practices, cultivation, trading and travel habits of past civilisations. Here, archaeobotanist Anne Davis examines and records details of seed remains.

Even ordinary building materials such as stone and brickwork can provide insights into London’s history. Here, senior finds specialist for building materials Ian Betts analyses brick samples.

A Harris matrix is used to plot and contextualise the dig, placing deposits and features in chronological and depositional order (how deep they are in the ground). Analysing how different features relate to one another is important for identifying relative dates and the development of a site over time. Context is everything.

Our photo competition theme for September is Farms and Gardens.

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Commercial farming and agriculture provide the high yields of crops necessary to feed an ever-growing population, but they also shape the landscape in unique ways. We all shape our own personal green spaces too. Our private gardens can be sanctuaries where privets provide privacy and nurtured flowerbeds bring colour to our homes. Urban spaces can be transformed too, bringing the great outdoors into the city — where an increasing number of us now live. The plants, shrubs, trees and grass that we grow and maintain also provide important habitats for wildlife – both urban and rural.

From cow-filled pastures to garden allotments, combine harvesters to lawnmowers and manicured gardens to machine-harvested fields, send us your images that show off the best of these living spaces, shaped by human hands.

The best entry will win a ��è����Ƶ goodie bag: a laptop bag that comes with a travelling cup and a set of ��è����Ƶ books.

A gallery of entries will appear here.

The competition will close on 30 September at Midnight GMT and the winner will be announced in early November. and head here for full terms and conditions.

November’s competition theme was “Geometry”. We had an amazing array of entries, many drawing inspiration from nature, architecture and science. The winning entry, by Ehsan Sanaei Ardakani, combined the geometric beauty of the city bazaar in Ardakan, Iran, with the colour, contrast and shapes cast against a stark blue background.

See more in our gallery, here