She rode into town like a turn of the century cowboy with a band of bloodthirsty henchmen behind her - but this was AD 61 and Queen Boudica, or Boadicea, did not leave Londinium with a cache of gold. Instead the Boudican rebellion ended with its leader committing suicide by poisoning and the crushing of the revolutionaries by the Romans before they could sack the entire capital.
By all accounts, Queen Boudica was a feisty woman and her reputation for destruction was secured with the estimate that she and her band of Iceni tribesmen, who marched on London from their power base in East Anglia, killed 70,000 people in Colchester, St Albans and London.
The connection between Queen Boudica and the extension of the Jubilee Line on London's Underground is that archaeologists, who have been invited to inspect some of the most spectacular ancient ruins under the streets have been able to prove that this East Anglian revolutionary penetrated south of the River Thames.
Perhaps not a fascinating piece of information in itself, but considered alongside some of the unusual and harrowing discoveries made during the construction of the Jubilee Line extension, a truly wondrous picture of Roman, mediaeval and Cistercian life emerges from beneath the ground. Archaeologists at the Museum of London who have been carrying out the extensive excavation and investigative work along the Jubilee Line's 10-mile extension regard the opportunity to dig around in London's most archaeologically sensitive areas as a privilege. From the discovery of a Neolithic arrowhead at Westminster and a Roman oil lamp in the shape of the Monty Python foot, to the burial grounds of a 12th century Cistercian abbey at Stratford, the chance to bring these treasures to the surface could not be missed.
The historian Tacitus described what happened when Boudica rode into Londinium: "Those who were unfit for war because of their sex, or too aged to go, or too fond of the place to abandon it, were butchered by the enemy . . . The Britons took no prisoners, sold no captives as slaves, and went in for none of the usual trading of war. They wasted no time in getting down to the bloody business of hanging, burning and crucifying." For Mr Al Green, the archaeology project manager at the Museum of London, the discovery of scorched floors in the rooms of Roman buildings in Southwark confirmed documentary evidence that Queen Boudica had crossed the Thames in her rampage against the Roman provincial procurator fiscal, Catus Decianus. Previously it had been thought that her campaign ended in the city but now we know that south London was important enough for her to cross the river.
The Jubilee Line project, currently the largest civil engineering project in Europe, costing £2.76 billion, has been designed with the archaeologists in mind. London Underground knew that the project would uncover sites of great historical interest and so had built into the construction contracts the chance for archaeologists to dig in the tunnels.
The project, which should be completed by the spring of next year, has produced a great deal of evidence about everyday life in Roman Londinium. Crossing the Thames from the north, visitors to Southwark were treated to what we would recognise as a busy shopping precinct with blacksmith shops, a butcher's shop and a bakery lining the road.
Piecing together the life of Roman London, Mr Green suggests that some of the oil lamps discovered in Southwark, which were imported from Holland, were sold outside Roman camps close to the city to the foot-soldiers passing by. "They were probably more kitsch in design rather than being used as proper lamps," he says, "but they show a very human touch, a wry touch of humour which is better than some of the Diana memorabilia on sale today."
The exceptional discoveries will be put on display at the Museum of London once the painstaking task of cataloguing them has taken place. Most of the other items, some 1.1 million, will become part of the museum's research archive in north London that will also be open to the public.
Unlike the foundations of 17th century alehouses and taverns discovered underneath the streets south of London Bridge, archaeologists at Redcross Way discovered a 19th century burial ground that was probably used to bury prostitutes and poor people. The exact date of the first interment has not been established but the museum believes it was probably the middle of the 17th Century, and on ground that was not consecrated.
The bones of the poor people of Redcross Way will be reburied but for the Cistercian monks at Stratford their ultimate resting place is unclear.
The discovery of Stratford Langthorne Abbey at the east end of the Jubilee Line was a "tremendous" moment, according to the archaeologists.
The abbey was founded in 1135 by William de Montfichet as a house for the French Savignacs. The Savignacs were a religious order dedicated to restoring the rule of St Benedict and in 1147 they submitted to the Cistercian monks who share their ideal. Their rejection of ostentatious displays of wealth by the church was reflected in their simple attitude to life and prayer. The Cistercians even adapted their daily schedule to allow more time for study and contemplation. The Cistercians lived at Stratford for more than 400 years until Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. During those 400 years some 683 monks were buried in the grounds of the abbey dressed in simple shrouds and laid in the ground in wooden caskets. However, because the ground was deconsecrated in the 1540s after the dissolution, once the archaeologists discovered the graveyard they applied to the Home Office for a burial licence allowing them to exhume and examine the bodies.
The monks of Stratford Langthorne may end up on public display at the museum's archive, or perhaps present-day Cistercians will claim their remains. What is certain is that the tunnels beneath London's streets have many more hidden treasures to be revealed.