Route of M74 extension offers insight into our past

AN INTACT pharmacy, piles of teeth, and a Yemeni prayer room are just some of the discoveries made by the UK's biggest archaeology project who are busy trying to unearth what lies beneath the controversial M74 motorway link which got the go-ahead last week.

The five mile route which will cost £657 million, 50% more than originally estimated, will run from Fullarton junction near Carmyle to the M8 just west of the Kingston Bridge with work expecting to start in May and be completed by 2011. Glasgow City Council along with M74 project partners, HAPCA, formed by firms Headland Archaeology and Pre-Construct Archaeology, have been working with oral historians to piece together information about how people lived and worked across six different sites.