@HELondonAdvice is shut this week, so let's take an educational tour of the #archaeology of East London through the medium of @AssassinsCreed Valhalla instead! With the Lea and the Thames to orient us, I'm sure we can find some treats! (1/24)

We'll start at #Aldgate. The #Roman gate would have been there in the 9th century, and though we're a touch earlier in the game than Alfred's restoration of the City in the 880s, I expect its location on the main road to Colchester would have merited some upkeep beforehand.(2/24)

Moving east, Eivor reaches Whitechapel. No Roman Eastern cemetery to be seen here, but @PCAarchaeology's recent find of ten burials at Cobb Street can be credibly interpreted as an extension of the Northern Cemetery at Bishopsgate instead, so no worries (3/24).

At Mile End we look north over the Cambridge Heath Rd/White Horse Lane junction. Scraps of #Saxon and #Roman found here inc. @ArchSouthEast's Red Lion work. @Ubisoft have wisely not risked criticism though with any overinterpretation. But what's that in the mist ahead? (4/24)

Just to the north, it's only actual Bethnal Green! Authorities generally ascribe early mediaeval roots here, though a Roman sarcophagus find in the late C19 hints at earlier activity. This simple dispersed farming hamlet fits our understanding of the period well! Splendid! (5/24)

Eivor rode north but her planned survey of #Hackney Wick was curtailed by a pack of high level wolves. Improving our understanding the Roman mansio found by @MOLArchaeology in the '00s will have to wait until her XP improves (6/24)

We turn back south in search of #Stepney, a key early mediaeval centre and held by the Bishop of London. Its 10th century @DunstanSt church still has its Saxon rood today, which I'm very much looking forward to admiring. But hang on, what is this?? (7/24)

Not Stepney, but Bodilsberg Garrison?? Eh? Oh dear no. Toponomically and archaeologically highly inaccurate. Not sure what we can say about these soldiers either, who are firing arrows at me and shouting in Yorkshire. Let's go back to the safety of the City! (8/24)

Here, I find the Eastern cemetery! Possible clanger by the programmers though as it's *inside* the city walls. Even reading a Horrible Histories would have helped them on that. Interesting Insular Celtic iconography on the stones though and no church. Further study needed (9/24)

Eivor follows the wall down to the Thames. She finds a stream. Early London was wet and had many, now dried up or culverted. This one is broadly where @MOLArchaeology found a palaeochannel at the News International site, so credit to Ubi for going through the grey lit (10/24)

Turning east we find another road, The Highway! A lesser Roman route going at least as far as #Shadwell from the Tower, and long afterwards a main route to the docks and wharves. This has cheered me up no end after the Stepney debacle (11/24).

Just along here we should have traces of @PCAarchaeology's magnificent late Roman Stepney bath house (now under a @NisaLocally and a scheduled monument!) along with the trading settlement and mausoleum, all romantically crumbling I expect... (12/24)

A thorough search reveals no surface evidence unfortunately, though the terrace edge overlooking the river is neatly defined, indicating some good #geoarchaeolgoical research, if not a comprehensive collection of PCA monographs at Ubisoft HQ. Eivor continues downstream (13/24)

Not much at Wapping either, another Saxon settlement and probably a separate island in the river back then. Pre-mediaeval timber piles found on a watching brief at Garnet St this year by @archaeologygw hint at activity but report is in prep, so can't expect Ubi to know (14/24)

Reaching Poplar (possibly THE Poplar?) Eivor looks out across the sparsely populated Isle of Dogs. A Classical structure looms out of the mist across the Thames, but you'll have to ask @SouthernLondon what that is (15/24)

Eivor traces East & West Ferry roads round the IoD. I'm calling the walls early flood defences. The stone outcrop must be the interesting now-buried prominence under Westferry Printworks that @MOLArchaeology found and will dig, assuming that whole mess is ever resolved (16/24)

We go north again to Old Ford. No trace of the Roman settlement, dug since the 70s by various @LAMAS rescue heroes. The timber/daub buildings they found probably haven't survived, though the ford is here. No evidence of an earlier Roman X-ing which would have been helpful (17/24)

We cross the Lea to Stratford, where Roman occupation is hinted at by some bits of tile and pot, if not any actual columns. Eivor is accosted by an angry local (possibly a consultant) and has to repeatedly hand mattock him in the face until he lies down (18/24)

Not far to the SE is some actual habitation matching East Ham, where the 12th C Church of St Mary Magdalene has turned up Roman material under it. I expect this is an interim settlement. No one about to ask about this, though I may have just killed the sole inhabitant. (19/24)

Eivor realises that there is absolutely no sign of #Barking in the game despite it being home to several Saxon lady saints and rich treasures ideal for raids to help build her village up. These have been left to @ArchSouthEast to dig up this year instead. Another puzzle (20/24)

Hearteningly we do seem to have the Saxon farm of Dæccan hamm, now #Dagenham, represented. Please ignore the hitherto archaeologically unattested bridge from #Havering to Gravesham behind it (21/24).

Becoming weary, Eivor turns north again and passes through #EppingForest. A mediaeval forest was never completely tree covered and had settlements and farms dotted within it. The low calibre of my graphics card here helps to successfully convey its often open nature (22/24)

We end somewhere in #WalthamForest where some megaliths have appeared. Probably glacial erratics from the Anglian, prehistoric landmarks like this were possibly the root of the stone in #Leytonstone and the "stow" in #Walthamstow, though now long gone (23/24)

In conclusion, this is useful and well-argued addition to the corpus. Some aspects eg coverage of riverine settlement patterns and the need for a more convincingly set out case on sub-Roman and early mediaeval funerary practices, would however benefit from a further draft (24/24)