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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, a 1650s-era

tobacco pipe, or a small well-preserved wax seal dating back to the time of King Richard III 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 dirty job? Yes, but a fun one for hobbyists and archaeologists.

For the article this episode is based on, How StuffWorks spoke with Maryland Heritage Scholar

Henry M. Miller, Ph.D. 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 You never know what you're going to find. It's just like all of

archaeology. It's the thrill of the discovery. 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 mudlarking

originated in these 17 or 1800s 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, 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 London's population grew, and the Thames

...