KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Teachers’ notes
These activities are designed to help KS2 pupils explore the London before London
gallery, focusing on some key displays and questions.
They are for use by schools making self-directed gallery visits and those attending
booked sessions.
Alternatively you may choose to set pupils the more open task of selecting and
drawing objects that interest them from each period, annotating their drawings with
information. ‘Find and discuss’ sheets are available to help adults support this sort
of gallery investigation.
We suggest that before entering the gallery you explain that the displays are
chronological. Briefly discuss the huge length of time covered and point out how
the gallery map in this pack, and text panels in the gallery, can help them to find
their way around.
Split your class into groups. You may find it helpful to stagger entry to the gallery,
so that pupils do not all start at the same display case. Pupils could work
individually or in pairs.
Prepare your supporting adults by explaining that they can help pupils by:
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using the gallery map to help find things
reading and discussing text panels
expanding on the questions within the activity sheets
discussing the artefacts on display:
o what material is it made from?
o how was it used?
o how was it made? What skill was required to make it?
o is it complete?
o does it look like it did when it was first made?
discussing what materials and everyday objects have not survived
discussing similarities and differences between life now and then.
Please remember to photocopy these activity sheets before your visit. They are
provided in Microsoft Word format, so that you can adapt them for your pupils’
needs, if you wish.
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Flints
Dagenham
idol
Caesar’s
Camp model
Iron Age
Bronze Age
Ice Age & Early
Stone Age
Mid Stone Age
hunter-gatherers
Late Stone Age
settlement
Use this gallery plan to help you to find your way around.
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the River Wall (blue display cases around one side of the gallery) contains objects
found in the River Thames.
the Landscape Wall shows some key archaeological sites where many of objects on
display were found.
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Find the Shaping
the land display.
Ice Age and Early Stone Age (2.5 million years ago – 8800BC)
Watch the film at the start of the gallery to find out about how the land and climate
changed over the centuries.
 Tick when you find this jaw bone (pictured, left). What
animal is it from?
…………………………………………………………….
What was the climate like when this animal lived in Britain?
Hot/Cold
Tick each animal listed below, if you can find any of its bones on display. Underline the
sort of climate each animal would have lived in and discuss which animals you think early
humans would have hunted for food.
Draw a flint or people hunting a wild animal here:

Monkey
Hot/Cold

Elephant
Hot/Cold
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Bear
Hot/Cold

Reindeer
Hot/Cold
Think about the
climate in which
monkeys or
reindeer live today.
Flint: Touch the flint tools and watch the film showing how they were made. Why was
flint so important to early people?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
Why do you think the River Thames was important to people?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Find the Movable
Feasts display.
Middle Stone Age (8800BC – 4500BC)
By 8800BC the climate was similar to today and the Thames area was covered by forests.
Find the arrow. Draw it here and label the three materials used to make it.
Find the Three Ways Wharf wooden picture
on the wall and the display case nearby.
What did archaeologists find at this site?
…………………………………………………….,……….
Some materials do not survive. List some things that early people would probably have
had, but which archaeologists do not find?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
What do you think a ‘hunter-gatherer’ lifestyle
was like?
Why did early people keep moving rather than settle in one place?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Look around the Carving
out a Home section of the gallery.
Late Stone Age (4500BC – 2500BC)
People were now starting to settle in one place and farm the land.
Tick which new material was being used by 4500BC:
 Plastic
 Clay
 Glass
Find the Shepperton
 Flint
Woman model and read about her skeleton.
Discuss what sort of life the Shepperton Woman might have lived. Draw her face and fill in
the thought bubble with something that she might be thinking about.
Draw some objects from the River
Wall display.
Why do you think people
threw valuable objects in
to the Thames?
These were all found in the Thames.
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Find the Dividing
the Spoils display.
Bronze Age (2500BC- 800BC)
Can you find the nearby
shield, which is shown being
carried by a man in the
Crossing the Marsh model?
Tick which new materials were being used by 2000BC:
 Plastic
 Clay
 Glass
 Bronze
Find the Crossing the Marsh model. What are the people walking on, and why?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
Draw a selection of objects (such as swords, shields, axes, spears and pottery beakers).
Write the material that each object is made of.
_____________ made of _________
_____________ made of _________
Lots of valuable objects were put in the River Thames to thank the gods. If you were to
take part in a ceremony like this today what valuable object would you offer to the gods?
…………………………………………………….,…………………………………………………..
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.
KS2: Stone Age to Iron Age
London before London gallery
Find the Moving
Beyond the Valley display.
Iron Age (800BC – AD43)
Tick when you have found:
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Waterloo helmet

Battersea shield
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Sunbury hoard of coins
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Iron swords
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Bronze brooches
Copy the design on the Battersea shield.
Do you like design?
Look through the small glass window to find a
model of Caesar’s Camp.
What is now built over the top of the archaeological remains of Caesar’s Camp?
H_
______
A_
_P___
Compare the model with the wooden archaeological site plan on far wall. Examine the
recreated walls of a roundhouse. Draw a roundhouse settlement.
Coins were produced by
some tribal leaders, but
as symbols of power
rather than as currency.
People made or traded
for what they needed
rather than buying things
with money.
© Museum of London 2014. This sheet is designed to be edited by teachers.
The museum cannot take responsibility for edited content.